Tyler Perry isn’t slowing down anytime soon. The entertainment mogul – who recently had an Atlanta highway exit named after him – is launching BET+ next week Thursday, Sept. 19. A joint venture with Viacom, the new streaming service will feature more than 1,000 hours of content, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
BET+ will include new, original programming as well as favorites from Perry’s canon of movies, stage plays and original series like “House of Payne,” the Madea movies, “Daddy’s Little Girls,” “Temptations: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor” and more.
It will also include audience favorites ranging from original programming in BET’s arsenal like “Being Mary Jane,” “The New Edition Story” and “The Quad” to classics like “Coming to America,” “Martin” and “Poetic Justice.”
In July, Perry spoke about his latest venture during an appearance at Essence Festival in New Orleans. He said the opportunity to partner with BET and Viacom is “phenomenal.”
According to a statement from BET, the service will also eventually feature stand-up specials and add original content frequently.
“In our first year, we will release a BET+ original project almost every month, adding to our lineup of deep and diverse content,” BET Plus general manager David Griffin said. “We’re focused on super-serving lovers of Black stories by working with top talent and supporting fresh new voices, on both sides of the camera.”
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BET Networks President Scott Mills added they were “thrilled to offer a streaming experience of content curated for the underserved African American audience.”
“African Americans have a higher SVOD adoption rate than any other consumer base on the market, which is why BET [Plus] is a natural complement of BET’s linear network, which has been and continues to be the leading home of black culture for decades,” Mills said.
Other gifted Black content creators like Will Packer, “Girl’s Trip” screenwriter Tracy Oliver and others will also have content featured on the service. BET Plus will debut with Oliver’s “First Wives Club” starring Jill Scott and Packer’s “Bigger” series in tow.
The subscription will cost $9.99 per month and is ad-free. Perry said he is humbled and grateful for his success and admonished Black people to remember their history when going after their goals.
“If we as Black people start to really concentrate on where we come from, what we’ve been through, what our ancestors went through, hell even our mamas went through just to get us to where we are, I think there’d be a shift. … I think that our whole lives would change,” Perry said.
