Amid rumors declaring Tyler Perry the new owner of BET Networks, rolling out spoke to Brian Rikuda, EVP of growth strategy and business operations as well as actor, Lamman Rucker on the pink carpet to hear their thoughts on the conversation.
Rikuda also elaborated on what BET is doing differently this year compared to others.
Are the reports true about Tyler Perry buying BET?
Lamman Rucker: I mean, is it official? If it’s official, that’s going to be one of the most historically incredible things in our lifetime. How poetic, right? The 50th anniversary of hip-hop this year and for something like that to happen. Just the fact that those things are happening in the same year, it just says a lot about the progression of our culture, our access, our creativity, and innovation, that’s the essence of hip-hop.
It’s a further development with all these incredible art forms that Black people have been the inventors of. It’s great and phenomenal anytime we have the opportunity to not just be the operators, but the owners and stakeholders of the things that should belong to us. Not just the stewards of them but the actual stakeholders.
I’m over the moon, I’m so proud of that dude man and it’s great to have been connected to him throughout so much of this journey. We’ll see, crossing my fingers for him. I think he knows what kind of responsibility it is and knows not to squander it. To turn this already beautiful, incredible, phenomenal thing that Mr. Johnson brought to form in the first place, and to now hand it over to his young brother; even that secession conversation is just an incredible story man. I love it.
What is BET doing differently this year compared to 20 years ago?
Brian Rikuda: I think that’s a good question. As far as what we’re doing differently this year, I think one of the things we’re doing is expanding to engage our audiences on the different platforms where audiences now consume entertainment content.
Twenty years ago, there was essentially one mechanism to consume entertainment, it was cable TV. Now there are all types of online platforms, and there are direct-to-consumer platforms. One of the things that we put a lot of strategic energy behind this year is BET Plus, our direct-to-consumer platform. Not to do a shameless plug right now, but we’re dropping “Average Joe,” which is a new show featuring Deon Cole, exclusively on BET Plus, so that’s one of the ways we’re focused on engaging our consumers where they’re at these days.
There’s a lot of buzz about who’s buying BET, are the reports true?
BR: You already know. Paramount is always exploring opportunities to grow the business. I’d say there are a lot of rumors out there that you shouldn’t pay attention to.
