NATPE held its virtual presentation, “NATPE Virtual Segregation, Segmentation, and Storytelling: Spotlight of the Business of Black TV". The event features executives from production companies, distributors, promotions agencies, students, unions, brands, networks, connected tv providers, audience measurement, research firms, and creative establishments, who celebrate and advocate the growth of creative programming and production contribution on behalf of the black community.
Black consumers are one of the leading consumers of programming and streaming across traditional and digital outlets. During the session, “The Program, The Platform, The Promotion,” experts touched based on the current status of black programming, its target audience segmentation, and content distribution. COO, Revolt TV Detavio Samuels, defined black programming as stories that are designed and targeted at black audiences and are centered around the values that members of the black community can resonate with, requiring an authentic representation. He highlighted titles such as “The Black Panther”, demonstrated the potential for the stories to be told worldwide and resonate with global viewers.
The advancement of black programming is demonstrated through the highest-ever number of people of color working in the media industry, with production, creativity, ownership, significantly higher than prior recent years. The accessibility of an average of 90 black titles through both linear and streaming platforms, as opposed to earlier years when there were only a few popular black titles.
Chair & CEO, UWG Monique Nelson, who works in the longest-standing multicultural marketing firm in the region, specializing in the advertising industry, offered her perspective about what Black TV looks like today, which includes a time-slot organized to the digitation and democratization of the content. As large streaming platforms' built-in-based and heavy catalogs hinder the magnitude of the impact Black content inspires, an intentional focus is needed about where black storytelling will derive and be housed in to increase the number of platforms showcasing Black content. Ownership within the community should also increase. According to Nelson, the growth of the content will push through if each division has a similar goal of engaging in technological advancements that large platforms are implementing and strengthening its storytelling, distribution, sales, ad-placement, and resources among other aspects for black storytelling elevation to occur.
The growth of streaming services continues to expand the accessibility of black-owned content for worldwide audiences and increases the volume of career opportunities for creatives of color. Despite the growth, the community continues to face hardships for the creation of black tv in terms of funding, support for physical production and development, with the conflict of system racism serving as the main culprit, hindering black creatives' chances of showcasing their talent. One of the forms through which bias in the media and low production support can be fixed is by garnering teams with various perspectives, who will ensure inclusion for creatives of all races.
The presentation also included stories from known executives such as Jonathan Capehart, who covered a summary of how his interest in the media industry derived, how his career evolved and the particularities of how being a man of color has affected his career. One of his most recent projects being the weekly PBS news networks’ Brooks and Capehart session. He expressed that as a journalist, he tries to offer a perspective to the nation as a Black man, further spreading the community’s contribution to the country. Other executives, such as the first female director of the Star Trek TV series: Jazz Hanelle CulpeppFridayghlighted the importance of the mentors that led them to their current position in their careers today, as they too, told the story of how they became inspired to join the media industry. “This isn’t just something I do every Friday, this is something that is part of a firmament,” Capehart said.
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