TV One is an American

basic cable Cable television first became available in the United States in 1948. By 1989, 53 million American households received cable television subscriptions, with 60 percent of all U.S. households doing so in 1992. A 2021 Pew Research Center survey found ...

television channel targeting

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

adults. It is owned by Urban One, and headquartered in

Silver Spring, Maryland Silver Spring is a census-designated place (CDP) in southeastern Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, near Washington, D.C. Although officially Unincorporated area, unincorporated, it is an edge city with a population of 81,015 at the 2020 ...

. Originally launched as a joint venture with

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

, Urban One would acquire the former's stake in 2015. , TV One is available to approximately 43,000,000 pay television households in the United States; down from its 2016 peak of 60,000,000 households. The channel is also an associate member of the Caribbean Cable & Telecommunications Association, Inc. (CCTA)

History

Launch and early programming

In January 2003, Radio One and

announced an agreement to a joint venture to create a television network aimed at African Americans aged 25 to 54. TV One would launch on January 19, 2004, on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and was positioned as an older-skewing competitor to BET.Felicia R. Lee
"A Network for Blacks With Sense of Mission,"
''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', December 11, 2007. At the time of its launch, the channel was in approximately 2.2 million homes in 16 markets. Initially launched in 2.2 million households, TV One's coverage would increase to 42.2 million homes by the end of 2007. On July 7, 2008, the channel's president and CEO Johnathan Rodgers announced that TV One would provide extensive coverage of the

Democratic National Convention The Democratic National Convention (DNC) is a series of presidential nominating conventions held every four years since 1832 by the United States Democratic Party. They have been administered by the Democratic National Committee since the 18 ...

that August. In 2011, TV One's original co-owner

acquired

NBCUniversal NBCUniversal Media, LLC (abbreviated as NBCU and Trade name, doing business as NBCUniversal or Comcast NBCUniversal since 2013) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational mass media and Show business, entertainment conglomerate (comp ...

, effectively integrating TV One and the other Comcast Entertainment Group channels into NBCUniversal's portfolio. Radio One's ownership stake in TV One would then grow from 36.8% to 50.8%.

Rebrand and programming shift

In August 2012, TV One updated its on-air look and logo, as part of a plan to "tell stories about how African-American life unfolds and to distinguish it from a growing number of competitors." By this point, TV One had reached 57.4 million homes. On July 9, 2013, TV One announced that it would debut its first live one-hour, weekday morning news program that would be hosted by commentator Roland S. Martin. The program, ''NewsOne Now'', premiered on November 4, 2013. In December 2014, Brad Siegel was hired as president of TV One. Siegel was formerly president of Turner Entertainment Networks, and vice chairman of

Up TV UP TV (stylized as UPtv; formerly GMC TV and originally Gospel Music Channel) is an American basic cable television network that was founded to have a focus on gospel music. It has expanded into family-friendly original movies, series, and specia ...

, which he co-founded in 2004. In March 2015, Radio One announced a deal to buy out Comcast's 47.9% share of TV One for $550 million."Radio One Gears Up for TV One Deal"
Inside Radio, March 20, 2015. In February 2016, TV One updated their logo again, along with a new slogan: "Represent."

Programming

As of 2024, TV One's current original programming includes

true crime True crime is a genre of non-fiction work in which an author examines a crime, including detailing the actions of people associated with and affected by the crime, and investigating the perpetrator's Motive (law), motives. True crime works often ...

shows (such as ''

Fatal Attraction ''Fatal Attraction'' is a 1987 American psychological thriller film directed by Adrian Lyne and written by James Dearden, based on his 1980 short film '' Diversion''. It follows Dan Gallagher ( Michael Douglas), an attorney who cheats on his ...

'' and '' ATL Homicide''), documentaries (including '' Unsung'', the network's longest-running series), scripted films, and award show telecasts. The network previously produced reality shows, talk shows, and

sitcoms A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home ...

. TV One's main programming consists of reruns of popular

Black sitcom A Black sitcom is a sitcom that principally features Black people in its cast. Prominent Black sitcoms to date typically come from the United States with African American casts, forming a branch of African American comedy. Although sitcoms with ...

s from the 1970s through the 2000s.

Cleo TV

Cleo TV (stylized as CLEO^TV) is an American

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

network owned by Urban One targeting young millennial and

Generation X Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...

women. It takes its name from the

Ancient Egyptian Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

Queen

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator (; The name Cleopatra is pronounced , or sometimes in both British and American English, see and respectively. Her name was pronounced in the Greek dialect of Egypt (see Koine Greek phonology). She was ...

. Cleo officially launched on January 19, 2019, after a week-long soft-launch period highlighting its programming offerings. At launch,

Xfinity Comcast Cable Communications, LLC, doing business as Xfinity, is an American telecommunications business segment and division of the Comcast Corporation. It is used to market consumer cable television, internet, telephone, and wireless servic ...

and

Charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the ...

Spectrum A spectrum (: spectra or spectrums) is a set of related ideas, objects, or properties whose features overlap such that they blend to form a continuum. The word ''spectrum'' was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of co ...

served as the network's main debut base. Cleo primarily airs original and acquired lifestyle programming. Original shows produced for the channel have included ''New Soul Kitchen'', ''Lens of Culture'', ''Cleo Speaks'', and the Jazz and Jake Smollett-hosted ''Living by Design''. Like TV One, Cleo TV also carries syndicated sitcoms, dramas, and Black film telecasts.SCHEDULE - CLEO TV; Retrieved on August 3, 2024
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References

External links

* {{Urban One Urban One Television networks in the United States Television channels and stations established in 2004 African-American television African-American television networks