BET is bringing ads to its streaming service, the Paramount-owned network announced today.
BET+ Essential will launch at 6 a.m. ET on June 25, ahead of the 2023 BET Awards that will air later that night. The ad tier will offer viewers the same experience as the ad-free subscription, including a library of originals from Tyler Perry, for $5.99 per month. The ad-free tier is currently priced at $9.99 per month. It currently has approximately 3.3 million subscribers, according to Louis Carr, BET’s president of media sales.
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The ad tier comes as agencies and advertisers have made commitments to increased efforts in diverse-targeted and owned media.
“Several years ago, more and more advertisers started to realize the opportunity that Black consumers represented to the industry and to their brands, and a lot of them now are saying the best way to do that is through targeted or black-owned media properties,” Carr said. “We are still the biggest scale player in the upfront that’s targeting African Americans.”
