In April 2023, Tyler Perry shared his interest in bidding to purchase a majority stake in BET Media Group from Paramount.
As BET is the home of his shows such as “Sistas” and “House of Payne,” there was potential alignment. In addition, the media mogul hoped for the network to become Black-owned once again. However, the aspiration came to an end shortly after.
By August 2023, Paramount announced that it had ended its initial plan to sell its majority stake in BET Media Group stating that “a sale wouldn’t result in any meaningful deleveraging of its balance sheet,” as previously shared by AFROTECH™. With the change in plans, Perry, along with other reported bidders including Byron Allen, did not gain ownership of BET.
As AFROTECH™ previously told you, Perry was reportedly among the offers that ranged from $2 billion to $3 billion, but the bidding process didn’t pan out as he had hoped.
“I was disappointed about it for a number of reasons,” Perry shared at Bloomberg’s Equality Summit, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The way it happened was disrespectful in a lot of ways.”
“Don’t try to get me to pay for something that’s not worth anywhere near the value,” he added.
Perry also confirmed that he had no further interest in purchasing BET from Paramount if the possibility were to arise again.
While Perry doesn’t own BET and currently has no plans of doing so, he has a new contract in the works with Paramount. Deadline reports that Perry has inked a new deal with the entertainment conglomerate’s BET Media Group.
“Scott Mills [president and CEO of BET Media] and his team at BET have been incredibly supportive throughout our time working together, and I’m excited to continue bringing these stories to the screen,” Perry said, according to the outlet. “I’m grateful to our loyal audiences for watching week after week and engaging these stories.”
The outlet details that new seasons of eight of his BET TV series have been picked up including “Sistas,” “The Oval,” “Assisted Living,” and “House of Payne” as well as his BET+ shows “Tyler Perry’s Zatima,” “Tyler Perry’s Ruthless,” “All The Queen’s Men,” and “Tyler Perry’s Bruh.” What’s more, Perry’s upcoming crime drama, “Tyler Perry’s Route 187,” was picked up and is slated for 2025.
“Tyler Perry is simply without rival as a creator of content that powerfully resonates with audiences across genres, formats, and platforms,” Mills said. “Our programming partnership with Tyler – undoubtably the largest deal ever in the industry with a Black creator – has been hugely successful; delivering the number one series across all TV among Black audiences and five of the top 10 series on cable among Black viewers. We are thrilled to extend our extraordinary relationship with Tyler and to continue to be the home of the largest and most diverse collection of new Tyler Perry content for years to come.”
According to the outlet, Perry “has produced over 700 episodes of series for BET as well as streaming platform BET+.”
