Highlighting what it called “entertainment with purpose,” an expanding investment in content and technology-fueled multimedia reach, Allen Media Group (AMG) presented its programming lineup to media buyers and brand marketers in New York on Wednesday.
In what he described as his company’s first upfront season presentation in its 30-year history, AMG Founder, Chairman and CEO Byron Allen said AMG “reaches all segments of the American population” with channels including The Weather Channel, The Weather Channel Español, The Grio and HBCU Go.
And it reaches them on digital platforms as well as cable and over-the-air TV, Allen said, noting that The Grio reaches more than 50 million MVPD subscribers and also airs on a lineup of local “dot-2” channels owned by affiliates of Fox Television Stations, ABC, CBS and NBC. The Grio, which gained its cable distribution after AMG acquired the assets of The Black News Channel out of bankruptcy, is also available on digital platforms.
“The Grio has 100% penetration,” Allen said. “If you buy it, you are on all three platforms. It airs talk, game shows, movies, sitcoms, news and sports,” Allen continued. “It’s a Black CBS.”
Because The Grio is now 100% Black-owned, it also offers advertisers an opportunity to support a channel where journalists don’t have to defend their story ideas to managers who don’t understand why they matter, Allen said.
With American culture divided over facts and what to teach in history classrooms, The Grio “is more needed than ever,” Allen said. “We will invest in it until it is one of the biggest networks out there.”
The Weather Channel, which earned Emmy nominations yesterday for two of its shows, Uncharted Adventure and Earth Unlocked, has also been expanding its multimedia reach. Like The Grio, it is also available as a DTC service, along with HBCU Go and Sports.tv, said Michael Senzon, president of digital at AMG, who noted the company “is investing heavily in digital.”
Sports.tv airs more free sports programming than any other network, Allen added, while HBCU Go brings “90% of black college sports to mainstream TV.”
Senzon’s portfolio includes Local Now, a mobile and DTC app that AMG has been expanding since it picked up the service as part of its Weather Channel acquisition. Recently named the best streaming service of 2023 by Digiday Video and TV Awards, Local Now includes 18,000 movies and TV shows in its lineup as well as programming from PBS and FAST channels from Bloomberg TV, Architectural Digest and other media outlets.
Sasha Rionda, host of Local Now, noted that the service “creates 500,000 pieces of content each day” as it curates programming for local markets across the U.S.
Senzon added that Local Now is onboarding local TV stations as part of its mission to add content. “If we don’t have a local channel, we are working on that. No one can beat us in local. We are leading the way.”
Even as it invests in technology to push programming across platforms, AMG has been boosting its development of new shows, Allen said.
A series of primetime network TV specials has been spotlighting Black culture in comedy and music and one set for Juneteenth will celebrate what Allen called “centuries of Black excellence in a very entertaining way.”
AMG also now produces nine of the 11 court TV shows airing in U.S. syndication. It signed on Greg Mathis, who starred in his own court show for 20 years, after Warner Bros. Domestic TV Distribution announced it would no longer offer that show. AMG is also producing a new court show featuring Judge Marilyn Milian, a retired Florida circuit judge who starred for 22 years on The People’s Court, also recently dropped from the Warner Bros.’ lineup.
“This is the royality of court TV,” Allen said, standing on stage with Mathis, Milian and Ebony Williams, who will debut in September as headliner of Equal Justice with Ebony Williams and will be TV’s youngest court show judge.
“We don’t want to be just the largest provider of court TV programming,” Allen said. “We want to be the best.”
16 May 2024
23 May 2024
Comments (0)