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BET Holdings
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BET Holdings, operator of black-oriented cable TV networks, said on Thursday that in November it will launch a $35 million Internet venture called BET.com, aimed at African-Americans and backed by some of the media industry's heaviest hitters. BET will be joined in the venture by software titan Microsoft (already a BET online partner), the Liberty Media Group unit of AT&T, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and Barry Diller's USA Networks Inc. The new Web portal, to feature electronic commerce, news, entertainment, and communications tailored for black audiences, will supersede MSBET.com, BET's existing portal operated with Microsoft. "BET is going to open up and be that real-estate space for a lot of African-American entrepreneurs, a lot of African-American messages and information," said BET Chairman and Chief Executive Robert Johnson said at a news conference here. "Foundations and organizations are going to be a part of this audience aggregation. As we pull more and more customers to the BET.com site, we get an explosive potential of relationships that has never happened before. BET.com is going to be that one place everyone can go to," he said. In addition to investing dollars, the corporate partners will provide in-kind contributions for marketing and promotion. Johnson declined to say what each partner is contributing specifically to BET.com, though he said BET Holdings is the controlling partner. Kweisi Mfume, president of the NAACP, said at the news conference that this "brings to the larger African-American community a greater sense of control. It brings a sense of mobility in terms of information and it brings another thing ... and that is the issue of choice." BET Holdings owns and operates the cable television network Black Entertainment Television and three other networks. It also has subsidiary companies and joint venture interests that include book and magazine publishing, films, restaurants, and clothing lines. (This information was taken directly from the BET site and other sources.) See
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