BET NETWORKS REFRESHES & REIMAGINES ITS ENTIRE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM

buzzz worthy. . .

BET NETWORKS REFRESHES & REIMAGINES ITS ENTIRE DIGITAL ECOSYSTEM: MOBILE, VIDEO, DESIGN, USER EXPERIENCE, EDITORIAL CONTENT AND VOICE
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BET DIGITAL PRESENTS ADVERTISERS WITH EXPANDED PREMIERE OPPORTUNITIES TO ALIGN WITH BET DIGITAL’S COVETED COMMUNITY AND REACH LIKE NO OTHER BRAND ON THE MARKET
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BET GOES LIVE WITH DYNAMIC SOCIAL PARTNERSHIPS – SNAPCHAT & WHOSAY

NEW YORK, April 27, 2016 — BET Networks is transcending the television screen and dominating digital, as the #1 ad-supported multiplatform destination for African American viewers.  Today BET Digital relaunches its entire digital ecosystem and infuses new energy to its robust multiplatform content, giving readers a reimagined and refreshed experience across desktop computers, mobile, tablet, and social platforms. BET Digital’s evolution of its captivating digital suites is set to hyper-engage fans across its websites and the BET NOW app wherever and whenever they choose to consume content. Additionally, the BET Digital refresh presents advertisers with unparalleled access the coveted BET community and expanded reach with added premium integrations and inventory.

“BET Digital continues to trail-blaze innovation for our fans, reflecting their passions in original immersive content on everything that affects and touches our community.” said Kay Madati, Executive Vice President and Chief Digital Officer at BET Networks. “The evolution of our digital ecosystem elevates and matches our users’ top quality expectations and upgrades their video discovery experience with engaging interactive content across multiple platforms.”

“The newly designed BET.com and BET Now App will continue to amplify our urban cultural editorial voice with the latest trends, original video content and compelling articles with our unique lens on incredible stories.” said Jermaine Hall, VP and Managing Editor for BET Digital “Our editorial prowess along with our social reach solidifies BET Digital as the ultimate online destination for African American content.”

Each year BET Digital magnifies the buzz surrounding its live events, with its biggest weekend being The “BET Awards” and BET Experience.  BET.com’s huge audience and social reach will now extend even further with the announcement of its new enhanced partnership with Snapchat, the premiere platform to experience live and ephemeral global content.  Capitalizing on last year’s “BET Awards” Snapchat Live story, which resulted in one of Snapchat’s biggest live stories of the year, BET ushers in a new 2-day “BET Awards” and BET Experience Snapchat Live Story to make the entire weekend the prime destination for audiences to get a firsthand look at the celebrity-filled action, and offer advertisers unparalleled access to BET’s massive social community.

BET.com’s impressive digital footprint will expand even further in the marketplace and allow advertisers to connect with BET’s coveted audience in a more meaningful way with the launch of “BET AA-Fluencers” powered by WhoSay.   BET will feature constant unfiltered content shared by more than 2,000 of the world's most captivating urban personalities - including actors, athletes, chefs,and millennial influencers.  BET’s innovative partnership with WhoSay will allow brands to leverage African American influencers with high-impact opportunities that will build authentic brand narratives, and bridge the gap between celebrities and the BET audience.  Whether generating social buzz, site traffic or sales, BET’s in-house “AA-Fluencers” will create buzzworthy content that will evoke an emotional resonance with brands.

BET’s refreshed digital platforms introduce various components unique to the digital space including: dynamic content feeds,  simplified content discovery, cutting-edge designs that incorporate peek-through advertising and messaging opportunities on all electronic devices. BET.com’s new design features include:

• Responsive & intuitive design - Unmatched reach to our users everywhere and anywhere. The responsive and intuitive homepage looks its best from any screen size on any device – desktop, tablet or smartphone.
• Where-ever, When-ever Mobile Consumption – With audience mobile engagement at an all-time high BET digital content is available where-ever, when-ever on any device by logging on to BET.com or the BET Now app.
• User-Friendly Content Feeds – New scrolling approach enables easy browsing and continuous feed engages viewers with more content. Users will have the opportunity to share content right from the feed for easy sharing on today’s top social platforms.
• Simplified Navigation – Site exploration is simplified to assure focus on the user’s interest with inserted static trending and video icons within the header serving as quick access touchpoints to the most compelling content on the site from anywhere on the page.
• Trending List- The hottest content on the site will be aggregated on a dynamic list of stories that are buzzing in pop culture and on the site in real time.
• Flexible grid-style layout -Layout emphasizes the timeliness of our content, promotes exploration, and creates an enjoyable user browsing experience of the current happenings on the network, and in African American news, music, and entertainment. Designed to draw the users’ attention without pushing the rest of the content further down the page.
• Seamless advertising experience- Peek through advertising provides promotional areas that keep the user’s attention and serve as a high-impact tool for users in a flexible grid format when browsing our editorial content.
• Interactive social media elements -Increased sharing functions for Twitter and Facebook.

The BET Now App’s fresh new design will provide users with the ultimate multiplatform experience. The app will give users the ability to continuously play BET clips and full episodes and browse for other shows and videos while you watch. Additional offering include an improved video playback experience and auto-complete search capabilities.

BET Networks has seen significant online growth in the last year. Monthly unique visitors to BET Networks have grown 188% year over year. (source: comScore Multi-Platform, March 2016)