Tyler Perry has confirmed reports about his interest in buying BET.
Speaking to ET’s Nischelle Turner, he shared that the information is “not a rumor,” noting he’d like to own as much stake in the network as possible.
“I’ve been there for four years now and had tremendous success. I wasn’t expecting this to happen, so, yes, if that is possible, I’m very, very interested in taking as much of it as I can,” he says.
As Variety previously reported, Tyler is not the only star considering purchasing a majority stake in BET. Diddy and Byron Allen have also expressed their interest, which Tyler says is “really great.”
“This is what I love about it — when Bob Johnson sold it in 2000, I think it was, there wasn’t one Black person who could buy it. So now, to see all of these Black people, men and women, who are able to be in a position to buy it? Man, that makes me feel really, really excited,” he says.
Though he believes Paramount Global chairperson Shari Redstone, Viacom and Paramount “have done a phenomenal job with the network following Bob’s departure,” Tyler says he thinks “there’ll be happiness when it’s Black-owned again.”
Diddy also co-signs the idea of BET being Black-owned. “Media is the most powerful industry in the world but it’s the industry where we have the least amount of ownership influence and control,” he wrote in a now-deleted post. “It’s time for BET to be Black-owned again so we have the power to tell our own stories, control our own narrative! This is not about me it’s about WE!!!!”
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