Fiktiv USA - Black News Channel

The Black News Channel (BNC) is an American broadcast television news channel targeting the African American demographic. The channel is based in Tallahassee, Florida, and launched on February 10, 2020. The station was co-founded by television executive Bob Brillante and former congressman J.C. Watts; Watts is its inaugural chairman. Charter Spectrum, Comcast Xfinity, Dish Network and DirecTV carry the network.

J.C. Watts had planned to launch a news network focusing specifically on black American cultural topics since the mid-2000s, and had several rounds of unsuccessful capital-raising in developing the project. In the mid-2010s, a partnership with Florida A&M’s School of Journalism & Graphic Communication was announced, and the station was slated to be housed there; however, the channel eventually launched independently of the school, in a building on Killearn Center Boulevard in Tallahassee. The launch of the network was announced in November 2018 for 2019. The actual launch date was pushed from November 15, 2019 to January 6, 2020 before being pushed again to its eventual launch date, February 10, 2020.

One of the chief investors in the network is Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid Khan.

Black News Channel is an independent network that is minority-owned and operated, and the nation’s only provider of 24/7 cable news programming dedicated to covering the unique perspective of African American communities. BNC provides access to information and educational programming to meet the specific needs of this growing and dynamic community that is a major consumer of subscription television services. BNC delivers an authentic, new voice that represents African Americans in mainstream media and fosters political, economic, and social discourse; the network is one voice representing the many voices of African Americans. BNC’s programming illuminates truth about the unique challenges facing urban communities and helps close the “image gap” that exists today between the negative Black stereotypes perpetuated by mainstream media news and our enterprising African American communities.

As an innovative and life-changing network, BNC’s mission is to provide intelligent programming that is informative, educational, entertaining, inspiring and empowering to its African American audience. BNC is an independent network, minority-owned and operated. BNC is the nation’s only provider of 24/7 cable news programming created “by people of color for people of color.” BNC illuminates truth by authentically representing our dynamic African American communities.

BNC has a real opportunity to change lives and mindsets through the creation of a singular news organization based on a profoundly unique and critically important premise. BNC will serve up authentic, genuine, responsible and responsive news to black Americans. BNC’s news will include the priorities, issues, realities, and points-of-view of our black population and communities. BNC will be able to make a deep, rich connection to this target audience by being the antidote to today’s toxic news environment; our network will provide relevant news, as well as celebrate black lives, culture, and history.