Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group said that it acquired the assets of Black News Channel for $11 million.
The sale was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Tallahassee, Florida. BNC’s previous owner, Shahid Khan, who also owns the Jacksonville Jaguars of the NFL, invested $100 million in the programmer, Allen Media Group said.
Black News Channel ceased operations in March. It launched in February 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic hit the U.S. The network claimed record viewing during its coverage of the confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, but was unable to break even financially, laid off staff and eventually went into bankruptcy.
“Allen Media Group will deliver a best-in-class network to serve the underserved African-American community and the advertisers who want to reach this extremely valuable audience," said Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group.
“Also, we appreciate the opportunity to provide cable operators, satellite companies, telcos, and digital platforms diversity of ownership, voices, and viewpoints on their programming line-ups by having a 100% African-American owned network,” Allen said.
BNC, which has been running previously recorded segments since shutting down live operations, has carriage on traditional linear packages via Comcast, Charter Communications, Cox Communications, Dish Network, DirecTV and Verizon Communications. BNC currently has approximately 45 million linear subscribers and Allen plans to grow the distribution to approximately 80 million linear subscribers over the next 6 months.
The channel joins Allen Media Group’s portfolio, which includes 27 network-affiliated TV stations, The Weather Channel and 11 other television networks, as well as digital platforms Local Now, HBCU GO, Sports.TV, theGrio Streaming App and The Weather Channel Streaming App. ■
