Atlanta-based AspireTV, a cable network targeting Black audiences that has received relatively little notice since it launched a decade ago, is broadening its reach by launching a free ad-supported streaming channel on Tuesday.
Called AspireTV Life, the live channel is available 24/7 on The Roku Channel and KlowdTV with additional platforms announced soon.
“We have to be everywhere there is an opportunity to consume content,” said Melissa Ingram, senior vice president for multicultural networks and strategy for UP Entertainment. “We want to tap an audience we haven’t had access to before.”
Ingram said Aspire two years ago did market research and reconfigured the network to focus on lifestyle topics for the Black community.
“We wanted to provide our audience a place to see themselves and empower themselves whether they are cooking or doing home decor,” Ingram said. “We want them to shop with purpose and intention and buy from Black-owned businesses.
Some of Aspire’s current original shows include docuseries “Side by Side with Malika and Khadija Haqq,” cooking series “Butter & Brown” and “G. Garvin Live!,” design series “Unboxed with Nikki Chu,” and “HBCU 101.”
Credit: AspireTV
Credit: AspireTV
As a Spelman College graduate, Ingram wanted to highlight HBCUs. The network also funds a Black screenwriting contest and creates short films for aspiring Black filmmakers.
Its TV lineup also includes films and repeats of acquired sitcoms like “My Wife and Kids,” “In the House” and “The Bernie Mac Show.” The streaming service will focus on original content.
Originally majority owned by Magic Johnson Entertainment, Aspire TV was acquired in full by Atlanta-based UP Entertainment in 2019.
AspireTV Life is free, which differentiates itself from subscription-based competitors in the streaming world.
BET has its own subscription service BET+, which carries most of Tyler Perry’s films and TV shows and other original scripted shows such as “Bigger” and “First Wives Club,” also shot in Atlanta.
Atlanta-based Bounce TV, available on free TV, has its own subscription streaming service Brown Sugar, which offers classic films like “Shaft” and Bounce shows like “In the Cut” and “Saints & Sinners.”
AMC operates subscription streaming service ALLBLK, which provides a wide variety of acquired and original programming including Atlanta-based talk show “Social Society.”
Eric Deggans, a full-time TV critic for National Public Radio, said he is only dimly aware of AspireTV as an entity and isn’t sure if there is a viable market for what they offer in what is currently a very competitive landscape.
“It may be worth it for them to have the service,” Deggans noted, “even if it doesn’t do big numbers.”
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