LOS ANGELES — BET gained’t be offered in any case: Paramount Global determined towards promoting the bulk stake of the community.

Paramount notified bidders late Wednesday evening about its choice to conclude the BET Media Group sale course of, stated an individual aware of the choice who was not licensed to talk publicly. The particular person stated the corporate decided sustaining a heavy stake in BET creates extra worth for Paramount than any of the proposals after consulting with a pair highly-experienced monetary advisors.

Some widespread suitors included actor-director Tyler Perry, music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs and businessman Byron Allen. At one level, some thought of Perry as a number one contender primarily based on the 2 profitable sequence, “The Oval” and “Sistas,” airing on the community. He additionally owns a minority stake of the BET+ streaming service.

Along with BET, the deal would have included the cable channel VH1.

BET was initially began by Robert and then-wife Sheila Johnson in 1980. Robert Johnson created BET from the basement of his Washington dwelling after securing a $500,000 mortgage from longtime cable govt John Malone and finally constructed the model into the main TV community for Black Americans.

Johnson expanded BET by creating smaller digital networks geared to followers of jazz, gospel and hip-hop together with being a publishing home and occasion manufacturing agency. The community was initially led by widespread reveals like “Bobby Jones Gospel,” “Rap City,” “ComicView,” “Lift Every Voice” and “Teen Summit.”

In the early Nineties, the community turned the primary Black-controlled tv firm to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange.

BET has seen a decline in subscribers and income over the previous decade. Subscribers fell to an estimated 66.3 million in 2022 from 89.5 million in 2014, a peak yr for cable tv, in accordance with S&P Global. S&P stated the cable community’s annual income have fallen from an estimated peak of $319 million in 2013 to $188 million in 2022.

The jewel of the BET Media Group acquisition might have been BET+, which launched in 2019. BET says the streaming service has greater than 3 million subscribers.

BET beefed up its content material after Johnson and his then-wife, Sheila, offered BET to Viacom in 2000 for $3 billion – which made them the nation’s first Black billionaires. He remained the CEO till 2006.

“106 & Park” turned a flagship program for BET creating alternatives for unknown personalities into family names together with A.J. Calloway, Marie “Free” Wright, Terrence J and Rocsi Diaz. The weekday present - which began in 2000 and lasted greater than a decade - thrived with a video countdown, interviews and performances. A yr later, the community began the BET Awards to rejoice the contributions that individuals of shade have made via leisure and sports realm.

For years, BET was a platform that highlighted constructive photos of Black individuals. But within the mid-2000s, the community’s programming drew heavy criticism from a number of widespread figures - filmmaker Spike Lee to Public Enemy’s Chuck D amongst them - who accused BET of depicting African Americans in a destructive mild.

Many took intention on the now-defunct “BET: Uncut,” a late-night mature program that contained extremely sexual content material.

Big Boi of OutKast was overtly shocked by a few of the content material on “Uncut” calling it “distasteful” and “soft porn.” Other political figures and activists protested confirmed their displeasure together with then-co-founder Sheila Johnson who stated she had turn into ashamed of the community in a 2010 interview, suggesting that nobody watch together with her personal kids.

“Uncut” was canceled in 2006.

As a results of the criticism, BET took a brand new strategy. The firm researched what their viewers needed to see and created a lineup of extra family-oriented reveals comparable to “Reed Between the Lines” and “Let’s Stay Together.” It additionally introduced again “The Game,” which set scores information for the community, after followers petitioned for the present to return to tv following its cancellation on CW.

Some of its top-rated reveals now are “Sistas,” “All the Queen’s Men,” “First Wives Club” and “Tyler Perry’s The Oval.” Other reveals on the community embrace “American Soul,” “Tales” and “Boomerang.”

The community additionally airs the BET Awards, BET Hip-Hop Awards and the NAACP Image Awards.

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AP Business Writer Alexandra Olson contributed to this report.

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