Allen Tries to Buy BET--Again

[Mark Jeffries]

Paramount Global had offered the net earlier this year and got bids from Byron Allen, Tyler Perry and Sean Combs before they pulled it off the market, claiming that the bids weren't good enough--now, on the same day that it's revealed that Paramount and Warner Bros. DIscovery are considering a merger, Allen returns with a bid of $3.5B (up from $2.7B last time) for BET, VH1, the BET Studios production company and streamer BET+:

https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/byron-allen-bet-acquisition-offer-paramount-1235847887/#recipient_hashed=f5e94582f853e2a2938695bf146cde6b06becc765ef87c282ad28332998524e4&recipient_salt=8969

It's probably a coincidence that Paramount has pulled off VH1 (which was moved from the Paramount Networks division to BET some time ago) "RuPaul's Drag Race" and the "Love and Hip-Hop" franchise that were the channel's main drawing cards and moved them to MTV, but still...

[M-D November]

Ah, Byron Allen.  The vestigial organ of the entertainment industry.