Byron Allen, founder, chairman and CEO of Allen Media Group, introduced his burgeoning media empire to the New York media buying community over Greek food at Avra in Manhattan on Wednesday.
After 30 years in business, Allen said he was excited to be having his first upfront presentation. He called the company a family. His mother, his wife and his kids were all there.
“This is a family company and it is people before profits. I’m not publicly traded. I don’t have a board of directors,“ he said. “I’m not meeting with anybody every 90 days trying to explain something.“
That’s important to media buyers and their clients because “we will win the championship because we have the best people. When you have the best people, you’re going to always win.and when we are staying put and stay focused watch us rise rapidly,” Allen said.
Also in attendance were colleagues who have been with Allen from the beginning, when he was turning his show-business career as a comedian into a business.
Allen warmed up the crowd by telling stories he’s honed and polished so they never fail to hold an audience.
He talked about how his mother had him when she was 17. How they went on vacation to L.A. and never came back. How she got a degree in TV production from UCLA and a job at NBC. How she brought him to work and he saw Johnny Carson, Bob Hope, Redd Foxx and Flip Wilson. “That exposed me to television. This is what I wanted to do,” he said.
Allen also talked about how he started his business at his dining room table, calling all 1300 TV stations to get them to carry his first syndicated show, Entertainers With Byron Allen.
“On average, they all hung up on me at least 50 times,” he said. Eventually, he couldn't pay his phone bill and was calling stations from pay phones. “Thank God I didn’t run out of nickels and quarters,” he said.
One station executive who didn’t turn Allen down was Art Moore of WABC New York. He was also in the audience at Avra.
Allen became very successful in the syndication business and invested about a billion dollars building up his company. He acquired The Weather Channel, bought local broadcast TV stations and acquired and built digital platforms, making Allen Media Group unique.
He said he planned to buy more TV stations and cable networks.
“We’re very acquisitive,“ he said. ”We’re going to buy whatever we can that makes sense.”
Allen asked ad buyers for their support as a Black owned media company, but also as a media company with high quality programming and an advanced tech stack.
“There are a lot of folks out there that have made promises. And we're going to help them live up to those promises. Now is the time to not just promise, but to actually do it. Increase those allocations,” he said. “We can't deposit excuses. There isn't a bank in the world where we can deposit excuses, pledges and promises. It's time to really lean in and lean in in a big way. It's important. This is the moment. We're there. We appreciate you being there. And we need folks to truly lean in with support, especially on the sponsorship side.”
Allen has been creating specials, buying time on the broadcast networks and selling sponsorships.
The sponsorships “allow us to invest and grow,” Allen said. “And as we invest and grow we're able to get scale. We're able to bring you Local Now. We're able to bring you HBCU Sports. We're able to bring you theGrio. We're able to bring you these amazing [syndicated court shows] and invest and invest and reinvest,” he said.
“We really need you more than ever. Because us being there for you and you being there for us is great business. You're fostering competition. And with us you have integrity, you have truth, you have a great deal of opportunity with all the things we've been doing in every area: general market, African American, Spanish language on every platform,” Allen said.
Allen also took a shot at Nielsen, which he said does a terrible job measuring audiences. He said AMG would be working with VideoAmp when the upfront market starts.
At the event AMG showcased the Weather Channel, its new direct-to-consumer app and Spanish-language channel. Allen talked about the company’s support of Historically Black Colleges and Universities and how the money he pays in rights fees for HBCU sports helps educate young people. And he talked about Local Now, the free ad supported streaming platform.
Allen also introduced the judges from his three new syndicated court shows starting in the fall, with Eboni K, Williams, Greg Mathis and Marilyn Milian.
Mathis and Milian became available when their long-running shows were cancelled by Warner Bros. Allen also cherry picked experienced former WarnerMedia executives to add to his company.
“Thank you WarnerMedia,” he said. “WarnerMedia is the gift that keeps giving.”
