All about BET - Black Entertainment Television Music Video Spotlight!

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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 rap and R&B music videos as well as religious programming and urban-oriented movies and series.

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.

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.

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]

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.

International

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.

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.

Popular original BET shows

• 106 & Park
• Access Granted
• American Gangster
• Baldwin Hills
• Beef: The Series
• BET Live
• BET Style
• BET Tonight with Ed Gordon
• BET Tonight with Tavis Smiley
• BET.com Countdown
• BET: Uncut
• BET's BlackBuster Movies
• BET's Comic View
• BET's Top 25
• Bobby Jones Gospel
• Caribbean Rhythms
• Cita's World
• College Hill
• Coming To The Stage
• DMX: Soul Of A Man
• Exalted!
• Freestyle Friday (a short segment of 106 & Park)
• Hell Date
• Hits From The Street
• How I'm Livin'
• Keyshia Cole: The Way It Is
• Lead Story
• Lift Every Voice
• Lil Kim: Countdown to Lockdown
• Midnight Love
• Personal Diary
• Planet Groove
• Rap City
• Screen Scene
• Season of the Tiger
• Spring Bling
• Softnotes
• Sunday Best (show)
• Take the Cake
• The 5ive
• Teen Summit
• The Basement
• The Black Carpet
• The Center
• Top 25 Countdown
• Video LP
• Video Soul
• Video Vibrations

• NOTE: The Sunday lineup was changed in 2005, instead of all day gospel, it now features gospel in the morning until 11 a.m., then features reruns of The Jamie Foxx Show, and Wayans Bros., and possibly music videos.

See also

• BET J
• BET Hip-Hop
• BET Gospel
• BET Awards
• BET Hip Hop Awards

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

External links

• Official Site
• BETJ
• [http://www.bet.com/BETCorporate/ BET's Corporate Home (includes historical timeline)
• BlackReport.com
• BET's College Hill Info on the College Hill Wiki
• BET's Official Myspace

Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since August 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since October 2007 | BET Networks | American television networks | Television channels and stations established in 1980 | Companies based in Washington, D.C. | Music video networks | African American culture | USA Network shows | Charlotte Bobcats