Black News Channel Set To Launch Monday

The nation’s only African American news network, based in Tallahassee, FL will launch nationwide Monday. Florida Politics reports.

Founded by chairman J.C. Watts Jr. and CEO Bob Brillante, the Black News Channel (BNC) represents the African American community in mainstream media. The network plans to target unique challenges facing urban communities and the “image gap” that exists today between the negative black stereotypes in the media.

“The launch of Black News Channel will be not only historic, but also transformational,” Brillante said. “We will shed more light on the stories that demonstrate our commonality, rather than those that highlight our differences.”

J C Watts

“I have traveled around the country participating in interviews, serving on panel discussions, and sharing BNC’s mission and commitment to telling a more complete story of the African American community,” Watts said. “There is growing interest and anticipation about the Black News Channel, as well as a palpable level of excitement about our launch.”

While Watts is a Republican, he said the channel will be about African American culture and won’t cater to political ideologies.

The launch also coincides with the 45th national Black History Month. Historian Carter G. Woodson, a founder of the Association for the Study of African American History, created the first celebration that became the annual tradition.

The network will be available on Spectrum, Xfinity X-1, Platform and Dish Networks and, later, Sling, Vizio, Smart TVs, Xumo and Roku. Those distribution partners give it a reach of more than 100 million customers.