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Shirley Brady
Major Broadcasting Cable Network officials hope MSO holdouts will pick up their new MBC News service in addition to their original family entertainment network.
MBC Network will become known as MBC Family as the launch date for MBC News approaches, said Travis Mitchell, EVP of operations.
MBC will increase its original programming budget this year, especially for sports, to anticipate the shift of public affairs programming to the new network.
MBC VP of affiliate sales Samara Cummins confirmed at the New York press launch last week for MBC News that the network has had favorable discussions with Cablevision and will be talking to Charter Communications about picking up both services from the Atlanta-based programmer targeting African-Americans.
Cummins is also confident that Time Warner Cable New York City, which has yet to launch MBC (unlike other TWC systems), will look favorably on the 24/7 news offshoot, which is planned to launch in about 5 million homes by early 2004.
She also expects that a deal with EchoStar's Dish Network will be in place by the end of the year.
Mitchell said MBC is in talks with high-profile African-American media personalities ? including popular radio host Tom Joyner and former BET News on-air personalities Tavis Smiley and Ed Gordon ? to back up national anchors Gordon Graham and Val Bracy.
Rev. Jesse Jackson, actor Chris Tucker and AOL Time Warner CEO Richard Parsons were also on hand for the news network's launch.
The service will feature national and global news with an African-American perspective obtained through a partnership with Florida's News Channel.
Mimi Peters, a New York media buyer at the EGC Group, expects advertisers to welcome the MBC News service, particularly the opportunity to reach African-Americans in the 25-to-54 age group. ?BET and news was never a good fit, as people thought of them as an entertainment network first and foremost,? she said. ?But MBC creating a separate news channel is a terrific expansion of their brand.?
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