Business
Bounce TV goes on air in Philadelphia
Bounce has reached licensing agreements with NBC, Sony and others to offer hundreds of movies traditionally popular with black audiences, from “Do the Right Thing” to “Ray,” and “Mo’ Better Blues.” The round-the-clock programming also features children’s shows, gospel music, reruns of TV series such as “Soul Train” and “Backstage Pass,” plus live football and basketball games from historically black colleges and universities.
Original programming and live concerts are on deck for early next year, and talks are under way to bring the network to Comcast Cable early next year, Bounce executives said.
“There is definitely room in the TV landscape for an African American-targeted over-the-air digital network like Bounce,” said longtime TV-industry analyst and researcher Shari Anne Brill. “For those African American homes that don’t have access to cable TV, Bounce offers a programming alternative that doesn’t really exist anywhere else.”
“I believe the network will be here to stay especially because of the people associated with it,” she added.
Households not subscribing to paid cable or satellite television have a growing number of options. Bounce TV is among more than 20 digital networks that can be accessed over the air, from the majors NBC, NBC, CBS, PBS and Fox to Telemundo, Univision, Ion and Create. A regional broadcast network for black audiences, Song of the South, is slated to go live next year in several southern states.
“It’ll be interesting to see how this goes,” said media analyst Brad Adgate of Horizon Media. “They should go for slow and steady growth. They won’t become a hit overnight because it’s already too crowded and congested out there.”
Though there appears to be a dearth of black-oriented networks, the entertainment landscape is much broader in an era of tablet computers, DVRs, on-demand, free online content on Hulu and YouTube, and streaming subscription sites like Netflix. That makes it tougher for any network to get established, he said.
Adgate said 12 percent of black households in the U.S. do not receive TV programming from cable, satellite or broadband operators. The overall national average is 10 percent.
Copyright 2011. The Associated Press
