New Streaming Service BET+ Launches Thursday

A new subscription streaming television and movie service launches on Thursday and it's targeting African-American viewers. BET+ is a spin-off of the veteran Viacom-owned BET cable channel and the company bills the service as one that "streams black culture."

While the service does fill a niche in the streaming video on-demand (SVOD) market, it faces a couple of formidable problems at launch. While it does include several new series as well as the well-known "Martin" sitcom, most of its library of 1,500 episodes from nearly 100 shows consists of reality shows and other programming that had been created for the various Viacom networks. While the relatively modest catalog of 1,000 hours or so of content wouldn't in itself be an issue, it is a challenge given the pricey $9.99 a month subscription fee for the service.

BET+ launches with two new original series. 

"First Wives Club," from "Girls Trip" screenwriter Tracey Oliver, stars Jill Scott in an updated version of the 1996 film that featured Diane Keaton, Bette Midler and Goldie Hawn. It was initially ordered to series at Paramount Network in early 2018, before shifting to BET+. The second new original series is Will Packer's "Bigger."

BET+ will be the streaming home for the various Tyler Perry shows and movies and he will also be creating new original programs for the service.

The BET+ app is available on supported iOS, Android, Amazon Kindle, Amazon FireTV, Android TV devices. A Roku app is still in the works.

BET+ is also available as a Channel through Amazon Prime Video on Amazon. But you should be aware that the BET+ Channel through Prime Video is two separate subscription services. Subscribing to the BET+ Channel through Prime Video will not give you access to the BET+ app on other devices (eg., iOS, and Android), nor will any other BET+ app subscription give you access to the BET+ Channel through Prime Video.