Roland Martin Unpacks The The Fall Of Black News Channel

Journalist Roland Martin addresses and analyzes the fall of the news network Black News Channel (BNC). Roland conducts his analysis on his digital segment Roland Martin Unfiltered. Roland Martin Unfiltered is a daily show broadcast from Washington, D.C. The show focuses on news, politics, culture, entertainment, social justice, sports, education, business, and finance.

“It was his (Former Congressman J.C. Watts) vision to launch a Black news cable network. He had been trying to do this for more than a decade.”

After announcing BNC’s last broadcast was on March 25, 2022, Roland states that he predicted the fall of BNC. For proof, Roland brings up an email from BNC CEO Princell Hair. The email mentions a payroll delay for all BNC staff and hints at a possible shutdown. When Roland reached out to Princell, the CEO claimed that they were working towards ensuring all staff is paid for the work they’ve done. The LA Times soon broke the story of BNC’s downfall the day after. When asked for the reason behind the shutdown, Princell cites an inability to meet financial goals due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures.

Before continuing his examination, Roland gives a brief history of BNC’s founding. The channel was launched in 2019 by former Congressman J.C. Watts. Watts soon came upon an investor by the name of Shahid Khan. Shahid is a Pakistani billionaire who owns the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars. Shahid decided to invest fifty million USD into BNC and became the majority shareholder. Roland notes that it was at this moment that BNC moved from being “Black-owned” to “Black-targeted.”

“Folks who are billionaires ain’t in the business of losing money. It’s not what they do.”

Roland continues the discussion of BNC’s founding by showing a video clip. The video shows Watts and Shahid talking about BNC before its launch. Watts stated that BNC is culturally specific to the African American community. He believes that BNC will become the number one place for people of the African American community to find information about wellness, culture, and current affairs relating to their community. Shahid claimed that BNC would be able to compete well against other networks due to its specific, targeted nature. The BNC network was slated to launch on November 15, 2019.

Roland then moves on to analyze the video clip. Referencing a Tallahassee newspaper, Roland reveals that BNC’s launch was pushed back to February 2020. Still citing the newspaper, Roland also reveals a large change in personnel was made after the launch in which two hundred fifty staff were hired, and the Co-CEO Bob Briante stepped down. Despite the changes made, Roland believed that the fundamental mistake BNC was lunching their network at an inopportune time. At the time, the world was rapidly changing in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and one such change was the shift from cable to digital viewership. Roland advised Watts to launch BNC as a digital network to be more cost-effective and experience rapid growth. Sadly, Watts didn’t take Roland’s advice to heart, and BNC launched as a linear network. 

“When you don’t have high numbers in cable, you get what is called ‘bottom-of-the-barrel’ advertising which is direct marketing.”

To emphasize BNC's mistake in launching as a linear network, Roland talks about the difference between digital and linear networks by using BNC as an example. Unlike a digital network, BNC wasn’t receiving any subscription fees and was solely reliant on advertisements. This reliance resulted in receiving a low amount of money through direct marketing. Roland states that BNC’s average viewership was four thousand per hour, and it didn't rise until a big event like the 2022 Supreme Court hearings occurred. By then, it was too late. He believes BNC wasn’t big enough from a marketing standpoint, and thus, didn’t have a huge presence in advertising or social media.

“Princell came in, I know Princell very well, years of National Association of Black Journalists, but he made some fatal mistakes. The biggest mistake, he hired way too many people at high salaries, and that caused them to have way too much money going out of the door and coming into the company.”

At this point in the segment, Roland references two fatal mistakes made by BNC. The first mistake was that the investment put into BNC was too low to function. BNC only had a sixty-million-dollar investment for a five-year plan. Roland compared this to the more successful TV One network who had an initial budget of one hundred thirty million USD for a four-year plan. To create a strong image for future network competition, BNC decided to bring in numerous high-paid hosts and executives. According to Roland, this was a mistake because he said, “you can look good for a while, but it means nothing if you go out of business.” He emphasized the error of spending too much money to improve your image will cause issues in operations down the road.

The second mistake, according to Roland, made by BNC was not learning and following the same pattern as other failed networks. For example, Roland references the previously aired New Urban Entertainment Television (NUE-TV). The network lasted for only three years and had a budget of fifteen million dollars. It was founded by Dennis Brown Lee and had donors that included record producer and musical artist Quincy Jones. Unfortunately, large amounts of money were spent without a significant viewership. Roland stressed the need to control costs to ensure the company’s survival through maximizing expenses and revenue. Too much money going out, not enough coming in.

“That’s what Black News Channel didn’t do! They did not conserve their resources to methodically build. They tried to grow too fast.”

Roland believed that BNC needed to improve its programming schedule and manage finances more effectively. BNC's programming schedule mostly focused on programming from 10 AM to 7 PM. This was a mistake. Viewership is extremely low during that period. Instead, BNC should have focused on the primetime hours of 7 PM to 11 PM. Ideally, this would comprise four one-hour shows with all four airing twice during the televised twenty-four-hour period. Take advantage of content listed under the U.S. fair use doctrine like Congressional hearings. Roland also suggests investing in inexpensive documentaries to fill in the rest of the televised twenty-four-hour programming schedule. 

Lastly, Roland argues that BNC did not properly manage its finances. To him, being able to manage finances and an understanding of how to grow it are key in maintaining a network. The televised marketplace changes and, thus, dictates how a network can grow. Roland references a time when he hosted a Sunday morning show on TV One. It was never filmed live and instead taped on Friday because it was more cost-effective. Roland closes the segment after listening to some guests from his Master Class course.