Jacksonville Jaguars owner buys majority stake in Black News Channel

Jacksonville Jaguars owner Shahid “Shad” Khan has bought a majority stake in Black News Channel, a cable-and-satellite network that’s set to launch Nov. 15 in 33 million US households. Khan didn’t disclose the size of his investment, but a source familiar with the deal said it exceeded $25 million. Another called it “open-ended,” adding that “whatever Khan gets involved in, he’s in all the way.”

On top of the Jaguars, the Pakistani American billionaire also owns England’s Fulham FC soccer team. With his son, Tony, he also serves as a lead investor in the newly formed All Elite Wrestling. “My decision to invest was an easy one,” Khan said, confirming his stake in minority-owned and operated BNC, which is based in Tallahassee, Florida. BNC, co-founded by JC Watts Jr. and Bob Brillante in 2003, calls itself “the only television news network with news programming gathered, written, and produced by black people for black people.” Khan said in a statement that he plans to work closely with both executives. BNC has already undergone an 18-month live programming trial — distributed in 8 million homes — to test programming concepts.

When it rolls out next month, it will reach 23 million households by satellite and 10 million by cable in the country’s top African American TV markets, including New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta, the company said. Khan, 69, achieved much of his $8 billion in net worth, as estimated by Forbes, from auto parts supplier Flex-N-Gate Corp. He worked there as a student while attending the University of Illinois before acquiring it nine years after he graduated in 1971. On its website, BNC reports that Americans had access to 18 African American-owned-and-operated TV stations in 2008. “Today, all 18 stations are gone,” it says. “Black News Channel will be the nation’s first channel to fill this significant void.” Co-founder Watts, the chairman of the Washington, DC, conglomerate JC Watts Companies, is BNC’s chairman. Co-founder Brillante, whose father built the first cable TV company in Florida, is CEO.

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