Bankruptcy Court Selects Byron Allen As Black News Channel Buyer

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In 2016, Allen Media Group purchased The Grio, a digital video-centric “news community platform” devoted to providing African American consumers with “compelling stories and perspectives currently underrepresented in existing national news outlets.”


Now, The Grio could soon have a cable TV home, thanks to the acquisition of a now-defunct MVPD-distributed offering in a Florida Federal Bankruptcy Court.

The Northern District of Florida of the United States Bankruptcy Court, based in Tallahassee, has issued an order approving the sale of “substantially all of” Black News Channel (BNC) as “assets free and clear of all liens, claims, encumbrances and interests” to AMG’s networks division.

The deal, which brings BNC out of bankruptcy, is valued at $11 million.

BNC’s bankruptcy was filed by Shahid Khan, who invested more than $100 million into the offering. Khan is also the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars NFL franchise.

BNC has carriage on traditional linear MVPD packages and enjoys agreements with Comcast, Charter, Cox, DISH, DirecTV and Verizon. BNC currently enjoys approximately 45 million linear subscribers. Allen plans to grow the distribution to approximately 80 million linear subscribers over the next six months.

“We are excited to have been selected to acquire the Black News Channel, which has approximately 300 million linear and digital subscribers,” said Founder/Chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group Byron Allen. “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.”

As Allen sees it, the acquisition of BNC will add 300 million linear and digital subscribers to the AMG portfolio of assets, today comprised of The Weather Channel; digital platforms Local Now, HBCU GO, and Sports.TV; and streaming apps tied to TWC and theGrio.

Then, there are the free-to-air television stations, which AMG has also invested more than $1 billion in over the last three years as part of a stated goal to become the largest single owner of broadcast TV properties in the U.S.