Lionsgate has inked a deal with the parent of Ebony magazine to launch a free ad-supported channel, Ebony TV by Lionsgate, The Hollywood Reporter has reported.
The new FAST channel will offer premium content from Lionsgate’s library and will launch on Oct. 11 on Samsung TV Plus. “Ebony is the perfect partner to help bring our expansive library to a demographic that has been previously underserved in the FAST space,” said Susan Hummel, Lionsgate head of domestic channels and executive vp and managing director Canada, in a statement on Tuesday.
The Hollywood studio said channels targeted at Black audiences make up just 2 percent of all available FAST channels in the U.S. market, when African Americans represent 14 percent of the U.S. population.
The first content offerings for the next FAST channel will include The Great Debaters, starring Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker; the Dwayne Johnson starrer Snitch; Dear White People, starring Tessa Thompson; If Beale Street Could Talk, featuring KiKi Layne; and Tyler Perry’s I Can Do Bad All by Myself, starring Taraji P. Henson.
Other titles headed to Ebony TV by Lionsgate includes Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, starring Pam Grier, and Are We There Yet? and Kevin Hart: What the Fit. The FAST channel will also launch on The Roku Channel, Tubi, and Amazon Freevee later this month.
Ebony TV by Lionsgate follows Ebony magazine relaunching as an all-digital publication and parent Ebony Media opening a production banner, Ebony Studios, to develop and produce content.
“Ebony has long been an outlet our culture could count on for news and entertainment. Our new partnership with Lionsgate and the launch of Ebony TV is an extension of our brand that will provide our audience with Black-focused programming that furthers our mission to Move Black Forward,” Ebony CEO Eden Bridgeman Sklenar stated on Tuesday.
Lionsgate’s other FAST channels include MovieSphere, HerSphere and OuterSphere, and single IP channels like Nashville and Ghost Hunters.
This report was originally writing and posted on hollywoodreporter.com
