BET and MTV Networks are very quietly soft-launching Centric, a new basic-cable network aimed at African-American adults, on Monday (Sept. 28).
BET is rebranding its nearly 32 million subscriber BET J network under the Centric moniker, which will target African-American viewers with music and lifestyle programming, according to Centric general manager Paxton Baker.
The BET and MTV Networks venture was first announced this past April during BET's upfront presentation to advertisers. Both programmers are owned by Viacom.
BET J (formerly BET on Jazz) has deals with such key distributors as DirecTV, Time Warner Cable and Cablevision Systems.
I am not African-American, but often watched BETJ programming. My mom and I were very disappointed to tune to BETJ to watch “Montel Williams” this morning — and find the old “Fame” series running instead. Our Cable guide still listed BETJ, not Centric, and we are left wondering whether any of the old BETJ shows will be airing. Especially the Montel re-runs. He is the only talk show host who approached the medium intelligently and with compassion for his guests. In any case, I guess we won’t be watching Centric anytime soon.
I watched this network for the first time in the Atlanta market and I thought I was watching a bad version of TV Land. Is this a spoof? Most of the programming seems like syndicated shows (and not the good ones) and the quality of the programming schedule seems very shallow. Does this new network fall under BET? If so, does it have the same programmers. I am so disappointed. I watched BET J and thought it was pretty decent.