Byron Allen is adding yet another powerhouse media platform to his growing investment portfolio.
It was recently reported by Variety that the mogul acquired the Black News Channel for $11M following the news of their bankruptcy. Formerly owned by Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, it was announced that Allen plans to leverage the channel to provide content for viewers who looking for culturally competent news.
“We are excited to have been selected to acquire the Black News Channel, which has approximately 300 million linear and digital subscribers,” said Allen, the company’s founder and CEO, in a prepared statement shared by Variety. “Allen Media Group will deliver a best-in-class network to serve the underserved African-American community and the advertisers who want to reach this extremely valuable audience. Also, we appreciate the opportunity to provide cable operators, satellite companies, telcos, and digital platforms diversity of ownership, voices, and viewpoints on their programming line-ups by having a 100 percent African-American owned network.”
This is great news for current employees of the network, who were reportedly informed of the outlet’s possible shuttering, causing employees to not get paid.
In response, the National Association of Black Journalists said it “learned that plans are in the works to develop a solution to provide employees with their last three weeks of pay. NABJ is exploring ways to assist our members impacted by the closing.”
