NBCUniversal is tapping an outside company to help it bring a broader array of viewers and advertisers under its media tent. Group Black , a collective that aims to spur the development of Black-owned and Black-produced media, will curate programming and develop new original content for a new hub on NBCU’s Peacock streaming service known as “ E! +.” NBCU already operates a popular cable network that is called E!, but the two will not be managed in tandem.
Rather than diving deeper into celebrity news and reality programming, E!+ will feature a set of new originals from producers solicited by Group Black as well as NBCU library content, Group Black will also work to sell commercial inventory to advertisers. The new hub is expected to launch later this year. “This is an open call, in a way, for amazing content and storytelling that exists and can’t find a home in the general market,” says Cavel Khan, Group Black’s chief growth officer, in an interview.
Advertisers, he says, are “recognizing that their growth is coming from this multicultural audience and they need to have more reach and resonance with that audience.” He will oversee E!+ along with Peter Blacker, executive vice president of streaming and data products and head of diversity, equity and inclusion for NBCU’s advertising and partnerships division. The E!+ initiative marks the latest effort to develop media outlets that speak the nation’s increasingly diverse audiences.
Most advertisers are stil.
