A new streaming service will begin on Monday, with a very specific purpose and a well-known investor.
Larry Adams, a WarnerMedia veteran, launched Blkfam, which targets Black family audiences. Whoopi Goldberg also serves as an equity partner and creative force.
“I’m the marketing, distribution, and business guy, and she’s the creative powerhouse behind this that’s going to make it really magical,” Adams tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview.
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Adams claims the inspiration for Blkfam originated when he realized that major streaming services such as Netflix and Max were not sufficiently addressing the Black family demographic. He recalls scrolling through the Black Voices area of one service and remarking that “it was kind of like a grab bag. stuff felt like you have rows and rows of Black voices, but a lot of stuff wasn’t tailored to my family.”
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“When I was building the HBO Max go-to-market strategy, we discovered that families — from a commercial standpoint — are the ones who use several streaming services. Most people will have one or two, but families may have up to eight, particularly as we transition to an unbundled world. You’ll need a variety of content sources for people, and I realized that no one is addressing Black family streamers. We need tailored content that is okay to view alone but can also be seen together.”
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According to Adams, Blkfam will start with about 1,000 hours of content, including 20 syndicated series and ten original animation and live-action shows in development. There will also be news, exercise, and wellness programs.
“It hits the spot of like, OK, this is great for understanding the diaspora, the African diaspora, which is not just Black in America, but globally,” he adds. “Then we have content that we’re looking at licensing that’s for the millennial mom and the millennial dad and knowing that sweet spot of our family is younger and looking for a little bit more content that’s way more relevant.”
Then there’s Goldberg, an equity investor, and Whoop Inc. president Tom Leonardis.
“Tactically what she brings to the table is a deep understanding of how great content gets done, but more so she has actual IP that she’s been working on,” Adams said. “She has a book series that we will put to life, she has show ideas, and she is also, in my opinion, a wonderful arbiter of taste on what should appear on the platform. So she’s bringing her skill in entertainment to a variety of industries.”
Blkfam is ad-supported, but Adams says that in addition to typical commercial spots, he hopes to integrate companies into content as co-producers.
“Let’s get your values articulated in a piece of content that’s new, entertaining, and allows us to greenlight something that wasn’t previously possible,” Adams adds.
Blkfam is accessible on iOS, Android, Amazon Prime Video Channels, Roku, YouTube TV, Vizio, LG, Samsung, and Fire TV platforms.
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