Skip to content
Advertisement

Introducing Bounce TV

Advertisement

There is a new network on the air, Bounce TV. We’re not able to get it in Los Angeles just yet, but there is no stopping the movers and shakers who put this business venture together.

Bounce TV is the first African American broadcast network, featuring a programming mix of theatrical motion pictures, sporting events, documentaries, specials, inspirational faith-based programs, off-network series, original programming and more.

Bounce TV’s founders include Martin Luther King III, Ambassador Andrew Young, Andrew “Bo” Young III, as well as Rob Hardy and Will Packer, co-founders of Rainforest Films, one of the top African American production companies in the world. The Atlanta-based company brought us such favorites as, “Stomp the Yard,” “This Christmas,” and “Obsessed,” and “Takers.”

“We have shown station groups the strong need for a free, over-the-air network for African American consumers,” Bounce TV president Ryan Glover told SNL Kagan media, an online publication that focuses on business sectors such as communications and media.

“There are nearly 13 million Hispanic television households that are served by dozens of Spanish and Spanish-language versions of networks. Yet, the more than 14 million African American TV households have just a few dedicated cable channels and no over-the-air networks.” He added, “When you factor in that African Americans watch more television than the U.S. average and more than any other measured ethnicity, the facts speak for themselves showing the need to carry Bounce TV.”

Asked why he had decided now was the right time to launch Bounce TV, Glover noted that he has long felt programming options for African Americans were too limited. “Now, with local broadcast stations having bandwidth they need to utilize, there is a strong need for meaningful programming for digital signals,” he said. “This opportunity opened the door for the ideas we’ve been kicking around to become Bounce TV.”

The Atlanta-based network will offer programming on a regular basis that no other channel offers including your favorite Historically Black Colleges and Universities sports teams.

Live football and basketball games will be aired along with a weekly highlights show, “Inside The Game.” Coverage of HBCU games is part of the unique programming you’ll only find on Bounce TV.

Bounce has a multi-year rights agreement with Urban Sports Entertainment Group to televise football and basketball games from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, the country’s largest African American athletic conference.

“We have made strategic and intelligent [content] acquisitions,” Glover said, noting that Bounce has also locked up rights to hundreds of African American motion pictures from NBCUniversal Media LLC, Sony Corp., Codeblack Entertainment and Image Entertainment, including Will Smith’s “Ali;” Jamie Foxx’s “Ray;” Denzel Washington’s “The Hurricane,” “Philadelphia” and “Glory,” as well as Sidney Poitier’s “A Raisin in the Sun.”

“We have done a great deal of research to help guide these strategic pursuits,” Glover said.

You can visit Bounce TV’s website at www.bouncetv.com to find out about their programming and exactly where they are currently on the air.

A recent Bounce TV press release reported that the network would launch on KAXT in LA. Don’t want to steer you wrong, but I looked it up and had no luck. KAXT-CA is a television station in the Santa Clara-San Jose area that serves the San Francisco-Oakland- San Jose television market. I will keep you posted.

Gail can be reached at gail@hollywoobychoice.com.

Advertisement

Latest