Black Entertainment Television

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"BET" redirects here. For other uses, see BET (disambiguation).
BET
Image:BETlogo2.jpg
LaunchedJanuary 25, 1980
Owned byBET Networks (Viacom)
Picture format480i (SDTV)
CountryImage:Flag of the United States.svg United States
HeadquartersImage:Flag of the United States.svg Washington, D.C.
Sister channel(s)BET J
Websitewww.bet.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTVChannel 329
Dish NetworkChannel 124
Cable
Available on all cable systemsCheck local listings for channels

Black Entertainment Television is an American cable network based in Washington, D.C. targeted toward young African-American and urban audiences in the United States. The network is commonly referred to as BET and most of its programming comprises hip-hop and R&B music videos as well as religious programming and urban-oriented movies and series.

Contents

[edit] Programming

[edit] Entertainment

On weekdays and Saturdays, BET focuses mainly on urban music programming with shows like 106 & Park and Rap City, while also airing sitcoms such as The Wayans Bros., The Jamie Foxx Show, Girlfriends, and The Parkers. Dramas including Soul Food and The Wire air Sunday nights and early mornings and the stand-up comedy program called Comic View airs throughout the week. BET has recently introduced reality programs like College Hill, collegiate sporting events, and various movies and specials. BET also created a short-lived animated comedy series called Hey Monie!, after partnering up with The Oxygen Network.

On Sundays, BET carries gospel music and other religious programming for the greater part of the day such as The Bobby Jones Gospel Hour, Video Gospel, and Lift Every Voice. Religious programming also airs in the early morning hours every day from 4 a.m. to 9 a.m. EST.

BET also airs the BET Awards Show each year. The show honors African American entertainers, athletes and actors. It is usually BET's highest rated show of the year.

[edit] News

BET Tonight was relaunched as a daily newscast, BET Nightly News with Jacque Reid, which began in 1999 as an extension of its news coverage. BET's news coverage became a part of the network in October 1986. After the nightly newscast was removed from the lineup in the summer of 2005, it returned in October 2005 delivering news updates on BET throughout the day and, in 2006, as a Sunday afternoon news hour.

[edit] Criticism

Many prominent media critics, including Public Enemy rapper Chuck D,[1] journalist George Curry,[2] writer Keith Boykin,[3] comic book writer/artist/editor Christopher Priest,[4] filmmaker Spike Lee[5] and writer/cartoonist Aaron McGruder, have protested BET's programming and actions. One of the most commonly-heard complaints is the fact that BET's programming is mostly geared towards ad sponsorship and does not focus on the public affairs of the black community.

The channel has been criticized by members of the black community who feel that the channel perpetuates harmful black stereotypes by primarily airing hip-hop videos that often have misogynistic, materialistic, and/or violent themes.[6] As a result, BET heavily censors suggestive content from the videos that it airs, often with entire verses removed from certain rap videos. Detractors also point out the irony they see in the network's choice to show strong religious (primarily Christian) programming. Not long ago, people began referring to the acronym BET as standing for "Black Exploitation Television."[7] Many critics consider BET to be a modern-day "minstrel show".[citation needed]

BET has been criticized by some Christian evangelicals not only for its music & programming content, but for its morning religious lineup. Each morning, BET broadcasts evangelical TV shows, and hosts include Robert Tilton, Don Stewart, and Peter Popoff, all of whom have been criticized, proven to be heading fraud ministries, and who have had run-ins with the law. In Popoff's case, his ministry's tax-exempt status was recently revoked in Canada; also, skeptic scientist James Randi notoriously debunked Popoff on The Tonight Show in 1988.[8]

Protests against BET, for the above reasons, have taken place.[9] The most recent campaign against the stereotypes on BET is called the "Enough is Enough Campaign.[10]

[edit] Sister Network

The spin off channel BET J, originally called BET Jazz, is available in 28 million homes on DirecTV, Verizon FiOS TV as well as other digital cable providers. Programs include My Two Cents with Keith Boykin, Bryonn Bain, Crystal McCreary Anthony and Staceyann Chin, The Best Shorts hosted by Abiola Abrams, Living the Life of Marley about Ky-Mani Marley, My Model is Better Than Your Model with Eva Pigford and The Turn On hosted by Charlotte Burley. This channel is meant to appeal to an older, more sophisticated viewership, and aims to be the answer to the BET criticism with positive, adult programming.

[edit] Competitors

BET's success, and the controversy over its content, has spawned a few smaller competitors aiming toward the African-American market. Although some like NUE TV (New Urban Entertainment Television) and Black Family Channel (formerly MBC) had little success, others like TV One have thrived and succeeded, mostly by eschewing BET's music-based programming for more family-oriented fare. However these networks are mostly watched by older African-Americans and BET continues to be mostly watched by the youth.

[edit] International

[edit] BET UK

Main article: BET UK

BET International Inc was given a license to broadcast in the UK in May 2007 by Ofcom. BET UK will be the first international version of the channel and will launch sometime before the end of 2007[11] with headquarters in London. BET UK will be a mix of content from the main BET channel and locally produced shows.

[edit] BET Canada

BET became available in Canada in October of 1997 on most cable and satellite carriers. The Canadian feed is the same as the American feed with the only exception being movies. Most movies are replaced with music videos in a similar format to the daytime show BET Now with the exception being that there are limited commercial breaks and the BET bug doesn't appear in the bottom right corner. The majority of music videos being aired in place of movies are ones that were released during the summer of 2006.

[edit] Popular original BET shows

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ http://www.publicenemy.com/index.php?page=page3&item=31
  2. ^ http://georgecurry.com/columns/index1.shtml?id=1059847337
  3. ^ http://www.keithboykin.com/arch/000539.html
  4. ^ http://phonogram.us/viewpoint/ostracized.htm
  5. ^ http://tv.zap2it.com/tveditorial/tve_main/1,1002,271%7C79963%7C1%7C,00.html
  6. ^ http://clydeonline.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/my-criticisms-of-a-conversation-with-bob-johnson/
  7. ^ http://www.emergingminds.org/magazine/content/item/1426
  8. ^ Randi, James (1989). The Faith Healers. Prometheus Books. ISBN 0-87975-535-0 page 142. 
  9. ^ [1]
  10. ^ http://www.enoughisenoughcampaign.com/.
  11. ^ http://media.guardian.co.uk/broadcast/story/0,,2106667,00.html

[edit] External links

fr:Black Entertainment Television

ja:ブラック・エンターテインメント・テレビジョン om:BET pt:Black Entertainment Television simple:Black Entertainment Television

Retrieved from "http://india.smashits.com/wikipedia/Black_Entertainment_Television"
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