KIN TV launching as a new African-American multicast channel

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Another new African-American broadcast DTV multicast channel is launching this Fall in competition with Bounce TV, which launched 9/26. Lee Kyle Gaither is the President/CEO of LA-based KIN TV. Gaither was previously EVP/Head of Programming at TV One and VP/SVP Programming at NBC Universal, among other things. He also runs Basil Street Media (media production and consulting).


KIN TV, majority African-American owned and funded, is a joint venture between Basil Street Media and MGM Studios. It will be a multi-platform “lifestyle” network targeting African-Americans 25-54 and will offer a “wide range of programming designed to entertain, inform and inspire a broad audience of modern African-American viewers…It will include both African American and mainstream content on the network,” according to the Kin TV website http://kintv.tv/.

KIN will specifically offer a mix of lifestyle, drama, comedy, mystery and local news, focusing on topics such as home, travel, cuisine, parenting, work and relationships. Some content will be produced in local markets as well.

The network adds to MGM’s other multicast ventures, such as This TV, a JV between MGM Entertainment and Weigel Broadcasting out of Chicago. MGM also handles distribution for Weigel’s Me-TV, which offers classic TV sitcom and dramas.

We recently ran a story with Radio One CEO Al Liggins questioning the viability of the Bounce TV business model. With only one revenue stream, advertising, as opposed to the dual track of advertising and cable subscription fee payments for TV One and BET, Liggins questions whether the new competitor has much chance of success. Quality content, he noted in his quarterly conference call, costs money. But even if Bounce doesn’t post much in the way of ratings, he says it will still take some ad dollars away from the two established cable networks. Kin TV may do the same.

Bounce is airing in Chicago, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Houston, Cleveland/Akron, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Charlotte, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Hartford/New Haven, Norfolk, Dayton, West Palm Beach, Birmingham, Memphis, Louisville and Richmond. We are looking into what markets and stations KIN has so far been signed to.