BET

Chairman and CEO	Debra L. Lee EVP and CFO	Scott Mills EVP Corporate Marketing	Kelli Lawson Company Type	Subsidiary of BET Fiscal Year-End	December 2004 Sales (mil.)	$497.0 (est.) 1-Year Sales Growth	13.5% (est.

BET was founded by Robert L. Johnson, aformer cable indusry lobbyist, on  January 25, 1980 after getting a $500,000 investment from then- TCI president John Malone. Th network was initially a weekly, to hour Fiday night blck airing on the USA Network from 11 p.m o 1 a.m.he programming was mostly older movies and music videos, creating an outlet for an untapped market in the then-young cable industry, African-Americans. In May of that year, BET invested $1 million for the production of Black collegiate sporting events and expanded an hour. In November 1980, BET added two half-hour shows, Black Showcase and The Bobby Jones Gospel Show (the latter is still on the air today). On June 26, 1983, BET premiered Video Soul, a music video series hosted by popular D.C. DJ Donnie Simpson, one of the first marquee series on the network. On October 1, 1983, after finding additional funding courtesy of Home Box Office, BET launched a 24-hour schedule with a viewership of 7.6 million cable subscribers. Throughout the decades, BET has grown in viewership and expanded beyond television. In October 1989, BET entered the publishing business by launching their first magazine Emerge, aimed toward African-American news consumers. A little under a year later, BET launched YSB (Young Sisters and Brothers), a lifestyle magazine aimed toward African-American teenagers followed by the purchase of Arabesque Books, a publisher of African-American-oriented romance novels, and Heart and Soul magazine. BET also launched spinoff networks in the 1990s, including BET on Jazz: The Jazz Channel (now named BET J), a pay-per-view network called BET Action, and, along with John Malone's Liberty Media, BET STARZ!, which became Black STARZ! after the Viacom takeover and renamed Starz InBlack in 2005. BET also offers two other music channels, BET Hip-Hop, and BET Gospel, both of which are offered on digital cable platforms across the nation. BET also airs African-American interest specials and introduced public service campaigns. The Rap It Up campaign is dedicated to preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS in the African-American community. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, BET aired SOS: Saving Our Selves, a hurricane relief telethon concert on September 9, 2005, to raise funds for those affected by Katrina. More than $11 million was raised for Katrina victims.

Bet has a lot of different tv programs now even though their main focus is still black music, which is shown most of the day with shows like BET Now, 106 and Park, Rap City,and Bet Uncut. But they also have sitcoms such as The Jamie Foxx Show, The Wayans Brothers, Girlfriends, and The Parkers. Every Sunday BET carries gospel msic and other religious programming for the greater part of the day such as The Bobby Jones Gospel, Video Gospel, and Lft Every Voice. Gospel programming airs everyday rom 4 a.m to 9 a.m. Every year BET airs an Award show and it is always BET's highest rated show. But it doesn't stop there BET also airs a News show on Sunday afernoons for an hour.

BET through the years have ran into a lot of criticism from a lot of influential individuals such as Spike Lee, Cuck D, George Curry and Aaron McGruder. They complained that BET cares more about the rap and ip hop segments and not the affaris of African Americans.