The show must go on. BET Networks is moving forward with its awards show on Sunday, June 28, although this year don't expect the usual crowd: the event will be remote due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Scott Mills, president of BET, said the network made the decision to go ahead with the awards ceremony months ago, as the first wave of the pandemic brought the country to a standstill.
"When we made the decision in April to proceed with the show, we actually made the decision because we understood as the single, largest event on television celebrating Black culture, celebrating Black accomplishment, celebrating the Black community, and celebrating Black excellence, that now more than ever it was so important to ensure that show went forward."
Now, the awards ceremony finds itself scheduled in the midst of another major movement affecting the Black community. Protesters have been marching for weeks against systemic racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd in late May.
"The show has always been a platform not only to entertain but also to shine a light on those in our community who are working hard to drive change," Mills said.
Just last year, the BET Awards honored the Central Park Five, the Exonerated 5 -- men who served time for rape after they were wrongfully convicted.
This year, Mills is clear: Sunday's event will not be hampered just because everyone is not in the same room. Expect powerful performances and inspiring speeches as the award ceremony celebrates its 20th anniversary and BET Networks marks its 40th anniversary.
"It's a pretty amazing milestone and it's happening at the most incredible time in this country where we have these two plagues impacting specifically the African American community: the disproportionate of COVID-19 on our community and the over 400-year legacy of racism in this country," Mills said.
The BET Awards will be hosted by comedian Amanda Seales, featuring performances from Alicia Keys, Lil Wayne, and Jennifer Hudson.
As the first awards ceremony of the coronavirus age, BET is creating the blueprint for award shows to follow, as big events look to take a more remote approach.
"The great thing is the show's really anchored in celebrating the most extraordinary, successful, talented, creative people in our culture; and the stage while in many ways is a platform, a stage is a constraint," Mills said. "When we said to all of this talent, well the one thing we are not going to do is to have everyone perform on the Microsoft stage in LA, the talent actually responded 'Great, we can bring a whole, fresh set of creative approaches to executing on this."
The BET Awards will air June 28 at 8 pm ET/PT on BET and will make its network broadcast premiere on CBS.
AT&T announced earlier today it is spinning off its media properties in WarnerMedia in a merger with Discovery in a $43 billion deal.Scott Rostan, founder and CEO at Training The Street, joined Cheddar to talk about what the unwinding of the telecom giant's Time Warner media properties means for investors. "I think the investor sentiment is they're digesting the new information, and they're looking into the dividend, especially the reduction of the dividend," said Rostan, noting the transaction allows AT&T to focus on its core telecommunications business.
A 2021 report from UK Research and Innovation found that the shipping industry makes up at least 2.5 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions. It's a problem that energy solutions company, Leclanché, is trying to solve. Founded in 1909, the company has been developing and producing batteries for more than 100 years. Today, Leclanché's lithium-ion battery is used to electrify not just ships, but also railroad locomotives, trucks, and specialty vehicles. Cheddar News spoke with Pierre Blanc, chief technology and industrial officer of Leclanché, to discuss.
Amazon is betting that ammonia could be the fuel of the future, participating in a Series A round for the Brooklyn-based company Amogy in December. Amogy aims to de-carbonize transportation with a clean energy system that uses ammonia as a renewable fuel. Amogy is partnering with Amazon on its first commercial product - an ammonia-powered cargo-shipping vessel. Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
One of the world's largest transport companies is kicking off Black History Month with a new initiative aimed at the next generation of business leaders. Today, FedEx announced the launch of its Student Ambassador Program. Participants selected from eight historically black colleges and universities will receive career guidance from FedEx executives. The program is part of FedEx's ongoing commitment to HBCUs and will also help the company expand its pipeline for diverse talent. Cheddar News welcomes senior vice president at FedEx, Jenny Robertson, and Jerryl Briggs, President of Mississippi Valley State University, to discuss.
"Sing 2" has overthrown "Spider-Man: No Way Home" as the number one film at the UK box office. The animated sequel brought in $8.1 million, in just its two first weekends. However, "No Way Home" is still on track to beat "Avatar" as the number one grossing movie of all time.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has been a driving force for youth mentorship since 1904. The nonprofit organization is launching its annual Big Draft campaign this month in partnership with the NFL, and Artis Stevens, the first Black CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, joined Cheddar to discuss the push for adding more "Bigs" as mentors on his one-year anniversary leading the non-profit organization. "While the NFL is recruiting and drafting more players, they're also helping us to draft more mentors and, particularly, men all the way from across February to all the way to April of this year," Stevens explained.
The Supreme Court will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The court will examine admissions policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which count the race of applicants as a factor in admissions. The court has upheld affirmative action policies in the past, saying it helps to create more diverse student bodies. However, the conservative Supreme Court could be skeptical and even possibly hostile to such policies. Nick Anderson, Higher Education Writer, Washington Post joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
The value of most cryptocurrencies have plummeted in recent months since reaching all-time highs in November, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value globally. The steep crash has some talking about the possibility of a crypto winter, a term referring to a prolonged bearish period where asset prices persistently fall over many months. This all comes as the Fed is expected to raise interest rates, and the Biden administration is working on an executive order to regulate Bitcoin and other assets. Josh Goodbody, COO of Qredo, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the crypto crash, and how the industry might recover from it.
Recent data reveals that streaming giants are struggling to retain subscribers in the months following a major release.
According to data from Antenna, subscriber trends show that users will subscribe to a given streaming service just to watch a particular show, and then cancel those subscriptions shortly after. This comes as the streaming space continues to heat up as new entrants crowd the space. Jon Christian, Founding Partner + Digital Supply Chain Leader at OnPrem joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
