Tyler Perry might be adding another feather to his cap in the near future. The Actor, filmmaker, playwright, and entrepreneur expressed interest in buying a majority stake in BET Media Group from Paramount Global.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Perry currently owns a minority stake in the company, which includes BET and VH1, and also produces much of the content available on BET and the streaming service BET+, which he helped launch in 2019.
Perry and BET have been in collaboration for quite some time, as the network helped fund his first feature, 2005’s Diary of a Mad Black Woman. In 2017, Perry inked a long-term film deal with Paramount, with a TV deal that began three years later. The partnership has been a positive experience for Perry, Paramount Global president and CEO Bob Bakish and BET Networks president Scott Mills.
The entertainment mogul has produced several shows for BET, BET+ and Nickelodeon including The Oval, Young Dylan, Sistas, Ruthless, Bruh and Zatima. He has also created projects for Amazon and Netflix; most recently the highly acclaimed A Jazzman’s Blues.
Another potential buyer is Byron Allen, who controls a number of local TV stations as well as The Weather Channel and other businesses under his Entertainment Studios imprint. “Byron Allen is interested in buying BET, and he will be pursuing the acquisition of the network,” a representative for the mogul said.
If the two were to secure this deal, it would allow both to further expand their reach in the media space, and solidify a digital footprint for Perry’s shows, and Allen’s cable networks.
BET Studios, a faction of BET, also features minority stakeholders such as television producers Kenya Barris, Rashida Jones and Aaron Rahsaan Thomas.