The Five Spot: Charley Humbard, CEO, UP Entertainment

UP Entertainment celebrates its 20th anniversary in October with a large footprint for its family-friendly content across cable (UPtv, which launched in 2004, and Aspire TV), subscription streaming (UP Faith & Family and AspireTV Plus) and free, ad-supported TV (FAST) services (Aspire TV Life and Cine Romantico). In addition, the brand has recently expanded to include acquisitions GaitherTV Plus, featuring country, gospel, bluegrass and Christian-music content, as well as a partnership with Christian-themed, kids-targeted SVOD service Minno.

Spearheading UP Entertainment’s business operations is CEO Charley Humbard. The cable veteran has steered UPtv to a top-50 Nielsen ranking among cable networks in households thus far in third-quarter 2024 — up 10 spots from the second quarter.

Humbard, the son of late television evangelist Rex Humbard, spoke to B+C Multichannel News senior content producer R. Thomas Umstead about UPtv’s successful two decades within the entertainment industry, as well as the continued expansion of the brand across multiple platforms. An edited transcript follows.  

As you approach 20 years at UPtv, how has the brand evolved compared to when you initially launched the service? While the brand has evolved from music — when it was originally the Gospel Music Channel — to now with general-entertainment content, it has stayed consistent in the genre of providing uplifting content. As I look back now to where we were then, we have been the creators and definers of uplifting entertainment over the past 20 years of our journey. 

Given today’s crowded television environment, is there a place and audience for uplifting, family-friendly entertainment? I think so, now more than ever. I hate to say it, but the general environment today is supercharged and full of a lot of negativity. People really need a refuge and a place to go and get away from it all and get good stories that inspire them and remind them that faith, family and relationships are still so important. I think that speaks to why we are having the success that we’re having in experiencing the greatest growth in revenue and profitability for our services. It’s the perfect storm for us right now. 

How do you see AspireTV developing as an outlet for African-American viewers looking for programming catered to them? We wanted to stay true to what [AspireTV founder] Magic [Johnson] really wanted to establish for the network, which was a place for Black and urban viewers to see themselves in a positive light. We’ve added lifestyle programming such as cooking and travel to the network’s lineup. We recently launched AspireTV Plus, and we’re seeing really great success with that. 

How aggressive will you continue to be in expanding the UPtv brand into the streaming arena, as well as through content acquisitions? We’re looking at opportunities constantly to acquire things that I think can really help serve this audience. We recently completed a partnership with Ovation where we now represent [both companies] to advertisers and to cable operators and distributors. It’s a great addition for us. But with anything we always want to remain a reliable place that people can trust and know that the content is going to be right for them and their family. That philosophy works great for our distributors, advertisers and viewers.

Why is it important to you to extend the UPtv brand beyond television through community initiatives like “UPlift Someone,” which promotes acts of kindness and social responsibility? Nothing makes your brand more real than putting your sweat, blood and tears and personal time into it. I think that the kind of people we hire and the culture that we have built up at UPtv makes our people eager to go out and uplift others and do these things. Being uplifting to others is a core value of our company, and I think it’s really important that you live your brand.