The Black News Channel or BNC has shut down and filed for bankruptcy just 2 years into its launch according to reports.
The Tallahassee-based and Arabian owned media firm will no longer broadcast starting Monday March 28th and will instead leave its social media outpost up with previous content for viewers.
BNC debuted on Nov. 15, 2020 according to Nielsen BNC was able to reach around 33 million cable and satellite households in the U.S.
Although the network claims to be Black owned, the majority stakes in the operation were held by non-Blacks outside of the community.
Former Oklahoma congressmen J.C. Watts and trucking manufacturing Billionaire Shad Khan held a lion share of the company’s stake, but following a weekend of the highest rating the network had seen in its time of syndication, Khan told administrators and some 250 journalist and production crew members that they would be ceasing operations following the end of the day Friday.
Reports indicate that Khan failed to meet payroll on Friday, exactly one day after telling employees that paychecks would be delayed.
Princell Hair, the company’s president and CEO, told employees Friday in a memo that the news network was ceasing live production and “due to challenging market conditions and global financial pressures, we have been unable to meet our financial goals, and the timeline afforded to us has run out.”
Currently the channel is being shopped to a number of media companies, but no news of potential investors have been announced.
–Michael Lyles, B1Daily
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