When Robert L. Johnson launched Black Leisure Tv (BET) in 1980, the Black community- and culture-focused cable channel initially supplied simply two hours of weekly programming on the Madison Sq. Backyard Sports activities Community (later renamed USA Community). Now celebrating its forty fifth anniversary, the channel has since developed into the multi-platform BET Media Group.
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With the unique cable channel — BET Linear — as its basis, the BET Media Group presently encompasses seven extra platforms. These embody subscription streaming service BET+, unique content material supplier BET Studios, interactive division BET Digital, the Black women-dedicated BET Her, global-focused BET Worldwide, occasions and expertise division BET LIVE and multicultural cable channel VH1.
Since turning into its personal channel in 1983 — and establishing long-running franchises such because the music video present 106 & Park and the BET Awards (aka “Tradition’s Greatest Evening”) — BET has additionally undergone main proprietor and management modifications. Johnson bought the channel to Viacom for a reported $3 billion in 2001, ending its standing as a Black-owned firm. The next merger between Viacom and CBS Corp. then grew to become a part of Paramount International in 2022. Following Johnson’s exit in 2005, Debra L. Lee succeeded him as president/CEO.
A former member of Viacom’s govt group, Scott Mills, was appointed BET’s president after Lee’s departure and promoted to CEO in 2021. Mills initially started working at BET in 1997 as senior vp of enterprise improvement and held numerous posts earlier than advancing to COO. It was on his watch that BET started its media ecosystem evolution.
Mills, along with personal fairness agency CC Capital, was additionally reportedly among the many suitors eyeing the potential acquisition of BET Media Group from Paramount International in a deal final yr stated to be valued between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion. Sale chatter about BET first emerged in 2023 when Paramount International was stated to be curious about promoting a majority stake within the entity for an estimated price ticket between $2 billion and $3 billion. Amongst different doable bidders named in numerous media experiences had been Tyler Perry, Byron Allen and Sean “Diddy” Combs. Subsequently deciding to not promote BET Media Group, Paramount International has introduced that its long-anticipated, $8 billion merger with Skydance Media — following the previous’s current $16 million settlement of President Trump’s lawsuit towards CBS’ 60 Minutes — will grow to be official on Aug. 7.
Mills, who last spoke with Billboard in 2022, addressed what’s forward for BET Media Group because it strikes ahead beneath new possession. “I might guarantee everybody who cares about BET that it’ll proceed to be right here for our group,” pledged Mills. “We’re all dedicated to that.”
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BET launched its first main content material partnership in 2017 with Tyler Perry. What position do such partnerships nonetheless play within the community’s present ecosystem?
Our teaming with Tyler Perry began as a content material partnership, then he grew to become a associate in BET+ with us. His content material [Divorced Sistas and Sistas, among other shows], message and take care of the group resonate deeply. That’s an attractive factor. We’ve additionally partnered with Kenya Barris [Diarra From Detroit] and are additionally within the fifth season of The Miss Pat Present, which was dropped at us by govt producer Lee Daniels and govt producer/showrunner Jordan E. Cooper. One other instance is Kevin Hart internet hosting the twenty fifth anniversary of the BET Awards this yr. He’s been an excellent BET associate [Lil Kev, Real Husbands of Hollywood], going all the way in which again to his internet hosting the BET Awards over a decade in the past. Our complete method with these partnerships is that we’re a part of the broader cultural ecosystem. We get to help and be supported by extraordinary people who find themselves related to our group.
What number of are straight partnerships versus joint ventures?
I converse broadly of partnerships, that means that we work collectively. However a few of these partnerships are actually joint ventures, like with Tyler and Kenya, and others are very robust collaborations the place we’re working throughout a mess of initiatives, like we’re with Kevin Hart and his firm Hartbeat. And with Taraji [P. Henson] we had an general partnership together with her via BET Studios.
BET not too long ago introduced it will likely be additional traversing the intersection between sports activities and music with a revamp of the online’s early flagship sequence 106 & Park.
106 & Sports activities is a collaboration with Spring Hill Leisure, and everyone is working feverishly to get it able to launch within the fall. We’re going to start out with a weekly present at that time with numerous fantastic friends. It’s going to apply the very best components of the 106 & Park construction and format to the sports activities world. Very similar to Billboard’s position within the music business, music was the epicenter of what BET did for a very long time. Because the tradition and our group have developed, music has maintained a rare significance. Nevertheless it’s actually thrilling to understand the way in which that sports activities has developed to being an integral a part of the tradition. Along with 106 & Sports activities, we’re doing a docuseries with Michael Vick within the fall round his new position as head soccer coach at HBCU Norfolk State. The footprint that sports activities has in Black tradition is gigantic at the moment. So the docuseries and the choice to take the 106 & Park model and prolong it to the sports activities house are a mirrored image of that.
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Are you eyeing extra on the African music and content material programming entrance?
There’s not plenty of content material from Africa on linear tv within the States at the moment, although folks can entry some African content material on streaming platforms. However we’ve been making an attempt to crack the code to actually perceive what content material from the continent will resonate right here as a result of there’s plenty of nice content material coming from there. We’ve been bringing sequence over, one by one, testing them on linear and streaming to get a way of what’s resonating and what’s not. And we’ll proceed to do this. In truth, we simply wrapped capturing on the second season of Common Joe, an unique sequence for BET+, and we shot that season in South Africa.
Are you able to affirm the chatter that two of the annual reveals in BET’s awards franchise, Soul Prepare and Hip-Hop, are now not being offered?
I might say that it’s much less about them being now not and extra about our group having to reimagine them for this altering media panorama that we discover ourselves in. I believe what we’re going to see are extra folks taking franchises and saying, “This may need began on linear tv, however now I’m going to maneuver it to a different house. Do I transfer it to streaming? Or do I transfer it to a different platform?” So for BET linear, we’ve suspended the Soul Prepare and Hip-Hop award reveals. However we’ve a group that’s actively serious about the place these award reveals would possibly finest reside because the media local weather continues to evolve. They aren’t gone. And we additionally nonetheless have the NAACP Picture Awards and the Stellar Awards.
Nevertheless, with the 2025 BET Awards, viewership dropped nearly 50% in the important thing 18-49 demo from final yr’s present. Are there issues concerning the longevity of that longstanding tentpole?
Viewership was down. Nevertheless, the cable ecosystem is smaller at the moment than it was a yr in the past. That’s simply the truth of it. However extra importantly, I give [executive vp/head of specials, music programming and music strategy] Connie Orlando and the inventive group unimaginable credit score for delivering an incredible twenty fifth anniversary BET Awards present. I’ve been within the BET ecosystem for the complete 25 years that we’ve been doing the present. My seat mate at this yr’s present was Stephen Hill, the younger man who, 25 years in the past, created the BET Awards. On the finish of it, he turned to me and stated, “This is without doubt one of the finest BET Awards I’ve ever seen.”
It was a rare present. And actually, I attribute the viewership declines much less to the declines within the cable ecosystem and extra to the truth that we moved the evening of the present. It usually has aired on the finish of June on a Sunday. This yr, we moved the present to the start of June and on a Monday. What you’ll see in 2026 is us transferring it proper again to its conventional location, the final Sunday in June. And we’ll deliver the BET competition again as nicely. It’s very complementary to the core of that complete weekend expertise.
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What’s your perspective on AI because it pertains to the BET ecosystem?
We’re serious about AI in all of the ways in which everyone else is. There’s nothing I can share but. However we’re actively listening and speaking to potential companions about how we are able to use AI and associate with folks to make use of AI in methods that may particularly assist our group that don’t have anything to do with leisure. It may need one thing to do with empowerment, engagement or training, as a result of we admire the issues about AI’s influence on unemployment. Equally, nonetheless, we consider that AI has the facility to assist unlock plenty of potential alternatives for our group and assist tackle a number of the boundaries that exist for our group.
What’s one instance of a barrier that exists?
I’m a giant guide reader. So I at all times say to my 14-year-old twins, “Are you aware the explanation why there are such a lot of extra books than there are films?” It’s as a result of it’s actually costly to make a film and actually cheap to write down a guide. And there are actual issues about the way in which AI will disrupt content material creation, which is completely true. But when we really admire that capital is a barrier for making films, that signifies that individuals who don’t have entry to capital usually don’t have the chance to deliver the tales that they’d like to inform within the film format. Nicely in a few years, that’s not going to be an impediment. And instantly, individuals who didn’t have entry to capital, who didn’t have the flexibility to build up the assets required to create and inform their tales by way of films, shall be ready to take action.
Which group has the least entry to capital? Our group. There are a selection of jobs through which our group is concentrated which can be going to be impacted by AI. So we’ve to consider how we transfer into different fields and develop these expertise and capabilities. However equally, there are a variety of locations like movie the place it can really take away historic boundaries to participation by our group. For instance, take into consideration the music business, and the explosion in expertise that got here from our group as a number of the boundaries to creating and distributing music have gone away.
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BET underwent layoffs in July. Had been these throughout all sectors of the ecosystem and what number of workers had been affected?
As you already know, the media business goes via extraordinary modifications, and people modifications are impacting each firm within the business. The pinnacle depend reductions that we needed to take at BET had been reflective of the influence of these modifications on our enterprise. And having been on the BET for over 27 years, the truth is you undergo cycles the place you hit a form of an inflection level within the enterprise the place everyone has to tighten up, shrink the group to suit that setting. Then you definitely construct out that subsequent side of your enterprise, and also you’re capable of develop. We’re constructing out our going-forward platforms — streaming, studios and quick enterprise — to help the expansion of our group with these platforms. We needed to actually guarantee that we right-size the group to replicate that we’re actually optimistic about all the alternatives that exist for BET’s progress.
As a result of on the core, we play this singular position in our group in having the ability to efficiently transfer and prolong into myriad evolving media platforms. We’re not captive: we’ve been capable of prolong BET into all of those platforms. Black content material, Black group and Black tradition: At any level the place these three issues come collectively, BET can thrive and succeed. We could not know what media seems to be like 10 years from now. However what I do know is there are nonetheless going to be Black people. That the Black group’s affinity for content material anchored in Black tradition and from Black creators will exist as robust and vibrant 10 years from now because it does at the moment — and because it did 25 years in the past. We’re consistently transferring BET ahead in a approach that we consider is reflective of this intersection of Black content material, Black group and Black tradition.
Given the approval of the merger between Skydance and Paramount — and the previous’s current announcement about ending DEI initiatives — are you involved in any respect about BET’s Black focus being diluted?
I don’t converse to potential company outcomes. What I’ll say is that I consider any entity that’s a steward of BET will see and admire how particular, priceless and distinctive BET is with its 100% model recognition and all the opposite fantastic issues that BET has as a enterprise asset. I’m very optimistic about BET’s trajectory as a result of we actually do consider in its mission to serve our group and in the way in which it resonates with our group. So long as the precise selections are made with respect to BET, it can at all times be the main Black media platform for our group. It’s a privilege to serve on its behalf.
The place do you see BET 5 to 10 years from now?
After I returned to BET in 2018, I advised everyone that my focus was on making the precise strategic and working selections in order that BET would nonetheless be robust, vibrant and related 15 years sooner or later. I bear in mind going to my grandma’s home and there being an Ebony journal on the desk. The rationale why I say that’s as a result of the way forward for manufacturers isn’t assured. Merely since you’re profitable at the moment doesn’t imply that you simply’ll achieve success 5, 10 or 15 years from now. [Ebony founder and owner] John H. Johnson ought to have created BET. [BET founder Robert] Bob Johnson loves to inform the story that he didn’t have the cash to create BET however he had the concept; he went to different folks to ask for cash. John Johnson had the cash however he didn’t have that concept. Ebony ought to have moved into all of those completely different platforms and areas as its beginning platform, print, was shrinking. If he’d made selections to evolve that platform, Ebony would have been thriving at the moment. And it’s heartbreaking that it’s not as a result of it was such an vital a part of our tradition and group once I was a child.
My focus at BET is to work with my group and colleagues right here in organising BET such that it will likely be much more related, vital and central to our group and thriving 10 to fifteen years from now. That’s what I’m working in direction of.