Add to the list of prospects for Comcast
carriage of African-American themed cable networks a new
biography-based high-definition network from Byron Allen’s
Entertainment Studios.
Launching later this year, Legacy.TV will feature biographies
of infl uential and successful African-Americans from all facets of
American society, Allen, the chairman and CEO of Entertainment
Studios, told Multichannel News.
The channel — a rare African American-targeted network wholly
owned by an African-American — also will offer talk shows, news
and celebrity interviews.
“Viewers are going to want to know about LeBron James and Denzel
Washington and Halle Berry and Gen. Colin Powell,” Allen said.
“All content will be originally produced in-house to ensure the highest
level of creative quality, as well as the ability to distribute our
content globally on all platforms.”
“I think Legacy.tv is the perfect name to document African-American
history and biography and celebrate African-American excellence,”
he said. “It’s something that as a community we will be very
proud of, and it should have mass cross-over appeal because you’re
doing excellent icons who happen to be African American.”
Entertainment Studios’ current HD networks include Pets.TV,
Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, Cars.TV, ES.TV and MyDestination.TV, offered
on Verizon’s FiOS TV Ultimate HD package.
Other new entities have recently emerged as expected applicants for
the 10 independently owned networks, including four African-American
owned-and-targeted networks that Comcast agreed to add as a
voluntary action in connection with its merger with NBCUniversal.
Black Heritage Network,
a news/entertainment network
targeting affluent African-
Americans, said last
month it is talking to operators
about distribution. It has
backing from former Federal
Communications Commission
member Tyrone Brown,
TIAA-CREF CEO Roger Ferguson,
columnist Clarence
Page and former GE and NBC
exec Paul Besson.
HBCU Net, a 24-hour network
featuring content from
Historically Black College
and Universities, headed by
former BET executive Curtis
Symonds, also is planning to
launch in 2012 and vying for a
Comcast spot.
