Wednesday, February 10, 2010

BET: Hustling Backwards!! It’s too late, the damage is done.

Apparently last year Black Entertainment Television decided to conduct a survey on their network. They wanted to show that all blacks were diverse with different interests (somewhere the Devil is laughing). This was done in an attempt to gain advertisers and programmers. CEO Viceroy Debra Lee did a good job with keeping this one under wraps. I guess BET didn’t want to admit that they’ve lost advertisers over the years. It’s not a surprise that people jumped off the BET Titanic with such “Gems” like “Cita’s World,” “Hell Date,” “Frankie & Neffe,” “Tiny and Toya,” and everyone’s favorite “BET: Uncut.”


Side Note: If you ever wondered why your middle school daughter let boys slide credit cards up her butt, look no further than BET: Uncut.


You can look at the results yourself for understanding but I don’t need to. It’s idiotic that a black owned white owned stationed ran by black folks would need to study black folks. It should be their business from DAY 1 to know what black folks like and don’t like. BET’s biggest problem was that they dumbed down their content because they thought black folks were monolithic. Appealing to certain age groups while excluding others is how they got here in the first place. Black Entertainment Television is suppose to be for all Blacks – not just the young, tatted, ebonic speaking, pseudo-thugs/hoes/pimps/pimpettes that are mainstays on the network. To say it in a vernacular that BET would best understand. Once again, you are tardy to the party.

7 comments:

uglyblackjohn said...

They became followers of pop culture instead of leaders of the community.
What ever happened to BET News?

uglyblackjohn said...

Also - VH1 and other networks diluted the audience by providing content like "Flava' of Love" and "The Real Hoodrats of the ATL".

Citizen Ojo said...

uglyblackjohn - I don't mind them keeping up with pop culture. Every media platform has to keep their ear to the ground to know what's out there. When they started showing the behavior from a small segment of black folks like it was groupthink was when they lost me.

P.S. I take it you don't watch the real housewives of atlanta...ha ha

Eye D. VS Mel O. said...

First of all BET, MTV, AND VH1 invest way too much time broadcasting the sleezy and ultra ghetto/embarrassing "harsh reality" shows and barely show music videos. And when they do show videos, it's always the sleezy/stupid mainstream songs. As a MAJOR music head, I can only shake my head and keep it moving... And don't even get me started on how BET execs assume us black folk must have ADD when it comes to broadcasting shows/news that highlight real issues!!!

PS- BET UNCUT will forver be the most offensive/cheap/gross segment in music video history!!!

uglyblackjohn said...

@ Eye - Since we've become more prosperous (Blacks and the country as a whole), many children have had more desposible income.
Since kids buy most new music, the industry was geared towards them.
Maybe with a tightening of purse strings we will see more sensible music on the video channels.

Citizen Ojo said...

Eye D. vs Mel O. - True..


UglyBlackJohn - But does new music have to sound so bad???

uglyblackjohn said...

@Ojo - YouTube has a lot of good stuff on it.
Maybe MSM will realize this and begin to feature more artists and fewer performers.