BET looks to expand African-American broadband access

BET Networks has announced it is working to connect the majority of African-Americans to broadband technology. BET has submitted a proposal to the Department of Commerce's National Telecommunications Information Administration (NTIA) to increase the adoption of broadband technology among African-Americans through its National Sustainable Broadband Adoption Project. BET will partner with the National Urban League, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and others with aims to close the 'digital divide' among key demographics. Only 59% of African-Americans have adopted broadband in the home compared to 67% of the overall U.S. population, which means that nearly 16 million of the 39+ million African-Americans have not adopted broadband. BET will have an aggressive two-year broadband awareness and adoption campaign targeting African-Americans using all of the network's media platforms.