{"id":1957598,"date":"2025-08-13T08:54:54","date_gmt":"2025-08-13T08:54:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=1957598"},"modified":"2025-08-13T08:54:54","modified_gmt":"2025-08-13T08:54:54","slug":"black-entertainment-television-bet-networks-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/black-entertainment-television-bet-networks-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Black Entertainment Television (BET) | Networks &#038; History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"Article_floatedHeroComponents__8_NjL\">\n<div class=\"mb-10 BorderlessCard_BorderlessCard__u5tTW d-inline-block w-100 pb-0 rounded border p-10\" data-testid=\"BorderlessCard\" data-assembly=\"IMAGE\">\n<div class=\"w-100 position-relative d-flex\"><button class=\"btn btn-outline-blue-dark btn-xl btn-circle CircleIconButton_CircleIconButton__HkIE0 position-absolute bottom-10 right-10 bg-white\" data-testid=\"CircleIconButton\" type=\"button\" aria-label=\"Open full size image\" id=\"_R1mjjtsursq\"><svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" stroke=\"currentColor\" fill=\"currentColor\" stroke-width=\"0\" viewbox=\"0 0 24 24\" height=\"1em\" width=\"1em\"><path fill=\"none\" d=\"M0 0h24v24H0V0z\"\/><path d=\"M15.5 14h-.79l-.28-.27A6.471 6.471 0 0 0 16 9.5 6.5 6.5 0 1 0 9.5 16c1.61 0 3.09-.59 4.23-1.57l.27.28v.79l5 4.99L20.49 19l-4.99-5zm-6 0C7.01 14 5 11.99 5 9.5S7.01 5 9.5 5 14 7.01 14 9.5 11.99 14 9.5 14z\"\/><path d=\"M12 10h-2v2H9v-2H7V9h2V7h1v2h2v1z\"\/><\/svg><\/button><\/div>\n<p>LaVan Davis and Cassi Davis in season one (2006) of the BET TV series <em>House of Payne<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a9 2006 Tyler Perry Studios. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"QuickFacts_quickFacts__FMF2_ border rounded p-20 mb-20 ml-sm-20 mx-auto font-14 bg-white font-sans-serif\">\n<div class=\"\" data-testid=\"QuickFacts-Facts\">\n<div class=\"QuickFacts_fact__5ukCJ position-relative mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\n<dl class=\"\">\n<dt class=\"font-weight-bold text-capitalize mr-5\">Share price:<\/dt>\n<dd>$11.04 (mkt close, Aug. 06, 2025)<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"QuickFacts_fact__5ukCJ position-relative mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\n<dl class=\"\">\n<dt class=\"font-weight-bold text-capitalize mr-5\">Annual revenue:<\/dt>\n<dd>$28.76 bil.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"QuickFacts_fact__5ukCJ position-relative mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\n<dl class=\"\">\n<dt class=\"font-weight-bold text-capitalize mr-5\">Earnings per share (prev. year):<\/dt>\n<dd>$0.03<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"QuickFacts_fact__5ukCJ position-relative mb-10 line-clamp clamp-3\">\n<dl class=\"\">\n<dt class=\"font-weight-bold text-capitalize mr-5\">Sector:<\/dt>\n<dd>Communication Services<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<section class=\"HTMLContent_HTMLContent__cOyPs\" data-testid=\"HTMLContent\"><span id=\"ref915871-1\" data-level=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n<p><strong><span id=\"ref807335\"\/>Black Entertainment Television (BET)<\/strong>,  American <span id=\"ref809796\"\/><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/technology\/cable-television\">cable television<\/a> network and multimedia group providing news, entertainment, and other programming developed primarily for African American viewers. BET also operates a channel geared toward African American women, BET Her; features contemporary and 20th-century <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/popular-music\">popular music<\/a> through BET Gospel, BET Hip-Hop, BET Jams, and BET Soul; produces documentaries and movies for distribution on the BET channel; and sponsors the BET Awards. The company\u2019s headquarters are in <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/Washington-DC\">Washington, D.C.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><!--[P-1]--><\/section>\n<section class=\"HTMLContent_HTMLContent__cOyPs\" data-testid=\"HTMLContent\">\n<p>BET was launched in 1980 by media <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/entrepreneurship\">entrepreneur<\/a> <span id=\"ref809795\"\/><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Robert-L-Johnson\">Robert L. Johnson<\/a>. Having gained experience as a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/topic\/lobbying\">lobbyist<\/a> for the cable television industry in the late 1970s, Johnson saw an opportunity to reach African American audiences through a cable TV channel. BET originated with two hours of weekly programming in 1980 and slowly gained viewership throughout <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/place\/North-America\">North America<\/a> and the Caribbean. <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/art\/music-video\">Music videos<\/a> were an early staple of BET programming, as were shows that targeted a youthful audience, but the network broadened its focus to include political and issue-oriented programs, comedy showcases, talk shows, and sports, among a wide variety of offerings. Having established BET as a successful niche media company, Johnson launched it as a <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/public-company\">public corporation<\/a> in 1991. BET was listed on the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/New-York-Stock-Exchange\">New York Stock Exchange<\/a> until 1998, when Johnson and other investors gained private control of the firm. In 2000 Johnson and his partners sold BET to <span id=\"ref1311813\"\/><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/Viacom-Inc\">Viacom Inc.<\/a> for $3 billion. The network reaches about 90 million households. BET\u2019s affiliated businesses have included book publishing and event production.<\/p>\n<p><!--[P-2]--><\/section>\n<p><span class=\"Signature_signature__PzeTY tw-block border-left tw-border-gray-300 tw-italic tw-pb-1 tw-pl-2.5 tw-text-sm\" data-testid=\"Signature\"><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/author\/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica\/4419\">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica<\/a><\/span><span class=\"Signature_signature__PzeTY tw-block border-left tw-border-gray-300 tw-italic tw-pb-1 tw-pl-2.5 tw-text-sm\" data-testid=\"Signature\">This article was most recently revised and updated by <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.britannica.com\/money\/author\/Amy-Tikkanen\/6393\">Amy Tikkanen<\/a>.<\/span><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.britannica.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>LaVan Davis and Cassi Davis in season one (2006) of the BET TV series House of Payne. \u00a9 2006 Tyler Perry Studios. All Rights Reserved. Share price: $11.04 (mkt close, Aug. 06, 2025) Annual revenue: $28.76 bil. Earnings per share (prev. year): $0.03 Sector: Communication Services Black Entertainment Television (BET), American cable television network and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1957599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1957598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Black-Entertainment-Television-BET-Networks-History.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1957598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1957598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1957599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1957598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1957598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1957598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}