Black Entertainment Television
|
|
Black Entertainment Television (BET) is a cable television network geared towards African Americans.
BET was founded by Robert L. Johnson in January of 1980. Johnson is also the chairman and chief executive officer of BET. Today, BET is owned by Viacom, and operated by its subsidiary, MTV Networks.
By some in the U.S., the existence of BET is questioned as being discriminatory. Others point out that the network plays rap most of the time, and doesn't focus on the public affairs of the black community. This is a problem that has been made worse by Viacom's cutbacks of BET's public affairs department, although under Viacom, BET launched a daily newscast. Recently BET has begun adding more family friendly shows, such as reruns of The Cosby Show. On Sundays, BET carries gospel music and other religious programming for the greater part of the day, and is home to many shows, including Let's Talk Church, hosted by Bobby Jones, a well known and liked Gospel singer within the black community.
BET has three other music-oriented networks in it's stable, BET Hip-Hop, BET Gospel, and the most widely known, BET Jazz (formerly Bet on Jazz).
Popular BET Shows
- 106 & Park: BET's Top 10 Live
- Rap City
- BET's Comic View
- BET Nightly News
External links
- BET website (http://www.bet.com/)Template:US-bcast-stub