The Black News Channel, a new cable channel that will offer around the clock, 24-hour news about Black people, launched on Monday.
The network, "by black people, for black people," was
created by former Congressman J.C. Watts (R-Okla.). It initially launches in 33
million U.S. households in heavy Black markets, including New York, Los
Angeles, and Atlanta, reported The Hill. The BNC is being backed by Pakistani-American
billionaire Shahid "Shad" Khan, who owns the Jacksonville Jaguars. Khan has not
disclosed the amount of his investment, but a source told The New York Post
that it exceeded $25 million.
"I think there needs to be a more comprehensive story told
about the African American community, and we'll have a venue to do that," Watts
explained in a recent NPR interview. "We're not looking to be liberal or
conservative. We want to provide a venue for African Americans to have a voice,
to be a part of the dialogue that's going on in the country, be it
incarceration reform or impeachment."
The BNC, based in Tallahassee, Fla., is available to
Spectrum, Xfinity X-1 and Dish network customers. It hopes to add Sling and
Roku soon. The channel will feature on-air anchors, including Kelly Wright,
former Fox News anchor and reporter, former CNN and TBS host Fred Hickman,
libertarian radio host Larry Elder, Lauren McCoy, who formerly anchored Fox 44
and former CBS reporter Lauren McGee, according to The Hill. The new network so
far has hired 60 people.
"I can't tell you how excited I am that there is going to be
a 24 hour, seven day a week Black News Channel," Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.),
chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, said recently at the BNC launch
event. "I was thrilled from day one."
"We've been really pushing for diversity and inclusion in
the broadcast space and cable space and it's because we live in a multi-racial
civil society," added Rep. Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.) at the launch event,
reported The Hill. "For far too long, our media didn't speak to that and today
still doesn't speak to that diversity. The Black News Channel will fill a void
in many spaces."
The channel has partnered with the National Newspaper
Publishers Association, a trade organization made up of more than 200 Black-owned
community newspapers across the United States.