BEN Television (Bright Entertainment Network) is a British
television channel
A television channel is a terrestrial frequency or virtual number over which a television station or television network is distributed. For example, in North America, "channel 2" refers to the terrestrial or cable band of 54 to 60 MHz, with ...
launched in 2003, aimed mainly at expatriate
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
ns living in
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
. According to its official website "The BEN ethos is, 'safe family viewing and empowering communities'." The channel is
free to air
Free-to-air (FTA) services are television (TV) and radio services broadcast in unencrypted form, allowing any person with the appropriate receiving equipment to receive the signal and view or listen to the content without requiring a subscriptio ...
on
Sky
The sky is an unobstructed view upward from the surface of the Earth. It includes the atmosphere and outer space. It may also be considered a place between the ground and outer space, thus distinct from outer space.
In the field of astronomy, ...
.
As well as home-grown programming and
Nollywood
Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in ''The New York Times''. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there ...
films the channel also carries several hours of programming every day from
NTA and KAFTAN TV.
On 3 September 2007, channel 146 on the
EPG
Electronic programming guides (EPGs) and interactive programming guides (IPGs) are menu-based systems that provide users of television, radio and other media applications with continuously updated menus that display scheduling information for ...
was taken over by
Zone Media (now
AMC Networks International UK
AMC Networks International UK (EMEA) (formerly AMC Networks International Zone (EMEA), Chello Zone, Zone Vision and Zone Media) is a London, UK-based television company, founded in 1991 by Chris Wronski and owned by AMC Networks International.
...
) with the channel
Zone Romantica
Zone Romantica (formerly ''Romantica'') was a European TV channel that launched in 1998. The channel broadcast a mixture of telenovelas, music and entertainment from all over the world, but mainly from Latin America. The channel was available 24 ...
being launched. This meant that BEN TV is no longer broadcast on that channel number and has therefore been moved to its BEN TV 2 slot of channel 194.
Alistair Soyode is the founder and chairman of BEN Television.
As part of BEN TV's corporate social responsibility, the social enterprise Bright Entertainment Network Community Enterprise (BENCE) was created. BENC
works to support local communities and societies in engaging with the industry through various initiatives.
On January 28, 2021, KAFTAN TV launched in the UK, on BEN TV.
On 6 May 2021, BEN in collaboration with other channels came together to form a bigger Black led ethnic media platform on the Astra 2G and is broadcasting with the new channels reaching wider black and ethnic viewers in Europe.
References
External links
bentelevision.com
English-language television stations in the United Kingdom
Television channels and stations established in 2003
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