SB.TV Global Ltd, also known as SB.TV or SmokeyBarz, is a British music media company founded by

Jamal Edwards Jamal Edwards (24 August 1990 – 20 February 2022) was a British music entrepreneur, DJ and founder of the online R&B/Hip-Hop platform SB.TV. Edwards was an ambassador for the Prince's Trust, a youth charity which helps young people set up ...

and a small team of young people who work on web-based content. The platform was created on 2 November 2006, and its origins in

urban music Urban contemporary music, also known as urban music, hip hop, urban pop, or just simply urban, is a music radio format. The term was coined by New York radio DJ Frankie Crocker in the early to mid-1970s as a synonym for Black music. Urban contem ...

. Most of the content can be seen on its own

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel, or on the official SB.TV website and includes freestyle raps and

music videos A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device ...

. SB.TV have diversified into events and have curated stages at Bestival, Wireless, Outlook and other festivals. SB.TV were also invited to film interviews with a host of leading politicians at 10 Downing Street, including the Prime Minister David Cameron. Edwards has also built a relationship with the Royal Family and first interviewed Prince Charles in 2013. The popularity of the channel among London's underground scene has led to features in '' RWD'', ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the w ...

'', ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', '' Dazed & Confused'', the '' Sunday Times Style'' magazine, '' Vanity Fair'', ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'' and '' GQ'' while founder Jamal Edwards was on the front cover of ''

Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fra ...

'', '' Intelligent Life'' and the Emirates In-flight magazine. SB.TV also has assistant production credits from when Edwards was working as a junior runner for the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

, and

Tiger Aspect Productions Tiger Aspect Productions (formerly known as Tiger Television from 1988 until 1993 and also known as Tiger Aspect Films for theatrical films) is a British television and film production company, particularly noted for its situation comedy, situa ...

as well as joining the young persons panel at ''The Guardian''s new technology conference activate summit alongside

Martha Lane Fox Martha Lane Fox, Baroness Lane-Fox of Soho, (born 10 February 1973) is a British businesswoman, philanthropist, and Public service, public servant. She co-founded Lastminute.com, Last Minute during the dotcom boom of the early 2000s and has su ...

and others. SB.TV has been credited with 'discovering'

Ed Sheeran Edward Christopher Sheeran (; born 17 February 1991) is an English singer-songwriter. Born in Halifax, West Yorkshire and raised in Framlingham, Suffolk, he began writing songs around the age of eleven. In early 2011, Sheeran independently r ...

whose music was aired exclusively on the channel in February 2010 – a full year before he achieved worldwide fame.

History

SB.TV YouTube channel was created in 2006, when a teenage Jamal Edwards MBE"Music boss gets New Year Honours"
. BBC News, (2014). Accessed 31 December 2014. (son of singer and TV presenter

Brenda Edwards Brenda Claudina Susan Edwards (' Artman; born 2 March 1969) is an English singer, actress, television personality and presenter. In 2005, she finished in fourth place in the second series of ''The X Factor''. As of 2019, she is a weekly paneli ...

) began filming rap freestyles with a

handycam Handycam is a Sony brand used to market its camcorder range. It was launched in 1985 as the name of the first Video8 camcorder, replacing Sony's previous line of Betamax-based models, and the name was intended to emphasize the "handy" palm size ...

, which he would then upload to his YouTube account. For the first three years Edwards acted alone to provide amateur footage of many British

grime Grime may refer to: * Dirt, in the form of black, ingrained dust * Grime (music genre), a genre of music * ''Grime'' (album), a 2001 album by Iniquity * ''Grime'' (video game), a 2021 Metroidvania video game * "Grime", a 2022 song by Dallas Wood ...

artists, such as

Dizzee Rascal Dylan Kwabena Mills (born 18 September 1984), better known by his stage name Dizzee Rascal, is a British MC and rapper. A pioneer of grime music, his work has also incorporated elements of UK garage, bassline, British hip hop, and R&B. Dizze ...

Wiley Wiley may refer to: Locations * Wiley, Colorado, a U.S. town *Wiley, Pleasants County, West Virginia, U.S. * Wiley-Kaserne, a district of the city of Neu-Ulm, Germany People * Wiley (musician), British grime MC, rapper, and producer * Wiley Mill ...

Chipmunk Chipmunks are small, striped rodents of the family Sciuridae. Chipmunks are found in North America, with the exception of the Siberian chipmunk which is found primarily in Asia. Taxonomy and systematics Chipmunks may be classified either as ...

and

Tinchy Stryder Kwasi Esono Danquah III ( ; born 14 September 1986), known by the stage name Tinchy Stryder, is a Ghanaian British, Ghanaian-British rapper, singer, songwriter, entrepreneur and investor. Stryder has released three solo (music), solo studio al ...

, with the first SB.TV video being uploaded in February 2007. A Channel 4 documentary series, Bedroom to Boardroom that follows SB.TV was filmed in Edwards' first office,

Camden Collective Camden Collective is a regeneration project located in the London Borough of Camden. History The project has been run by Camden Town Unlimited, the business improvement district for Camden Town since 2009. Camden Collective carries out projects ...

. As the channel began to attract more attention, it also began offering lifestyle interviews and event coverage, and a production team of ten people was established as a result. The company has stated its aim to become a more "diverse youth lifestyle broadcaster", incorporating more genres of music. This has been seen in the inclusion of acoustic artists such as

and other

popular Popularity or social status is the quality of being well liked, admired or well known to a particular group. Popular may also refer to: In sociology * Popular culture * Popular fiction * Popular music * Popular science * Populace, the total ...

artists such as

Jessie J Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical '' Whistle Down the Wind''. She studied ...

Nicki Minaj Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty (; born December 8, 1982), known professionally as Nicki Minaj ( ), is a Trinidadian-born rapper based in the United States. She is known for her musical versatility, animated flow in her rapping, alter egos and accent ...

The Wanted The Wanted are a British-Irish boy band consisting of group members Max George, Siva Kaneswaran, Jay McGuiness and Nathan Sykes and, until his death in 2022, Tom Parker (singer), Tom Parker. The group was formed in 2009 and signed a worldw ...

and

Pixie Lott Victoria Louise Lott (born 12 January 1991), better known by her stage name Pixie Lott, is an English singer and songwriter. Her debut album, '' Turn It Up'', released in September 2009, reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and sold ove ...

. In February 2011, SB.TV launched their own music label ''Just Jam'' (an imprint of Sony RCA) and announced their first signing as east London MC, Maxsta. In March 2011 it had been suggested that the company were expected to go into business with restaurant chain

Nando's Nando's (; ) is a South African multinational fast casual chain that specialises in flame-grilled peri-peri style chicken. Founded in Johannesburg in 1987, Nando's operates over 1,200 outlets in 30 countries. Their logo (also seen as a sort of ...

. In August 2011, Edwards was featured in a

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a cross-platform web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS ...

advertisement by London advertising agency BBH, which tracked the emergence of SB.TV as one among many of the UK's rising youth broadcasters. The SB.TV website subsequently crashed as close to a million people searched "Jamal Edwards." The advert was revealed to be the second most watched video advertisement on

in the UK in 2011. On 10 April 2012, SB.TV released a video with grime collective

Boy Better Know Boy Better Know, often abbreviated as BBK, is a British grime collective and record label. The collective was founded in North London in 2005 as an independent record label by brothers Jamie and Joseph Adenuga, better known as Jme, and Skepta ...

, to celebrate reaching 100 million views across all videos. In September 2013, Susana Giner, director of the Youth Media Agency told The Independent newspaper there was a marketing term that has been adopted in Edwards' namesake; 'The Jamal Edwards effect', a newly adopted ideology that anything’s possible in the digital age. In 2013 Edwards became the first YouTuber to release an e-book and interactive game, ‘Self Belief: The Vision', which subsequently became a no.1 best seller with demand leading to an unintended print version via Virgin Books. Edwards worked with ''

Burberry Burberry is a British luxury fashion house established in 1856 by Thomas Burberry headquartered in London, England. It currently designs and distributes ready to wear, including trench coats (for which it is most famous), leather accessories, ...

'' as part of Creative Lives, fronted a ''

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'' campaign, presented at the '' BAFTA'' Children’s Awards, and delivered talks for ''

Cannes Lions The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is a global event for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields. It is considered the largest gathering of the ...

'', TedXHollywood and TedXHousesOfParliament. In a nod to his grandparents, he received a St Vincent Business Award in 2013. Edwards was honoured when he became one of the Queen’s Young Leaders, after being called upon to run the first ever social media hub at ''

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

''. Achievements like this saw Jamal placed at no. 2 in The Guardian’s top 30 young people in digital media 2014. In 2014, Edwards was invited to collaborate with American Freshman on a headwear range for ''

Topman Topman is a UK-based multinational men's fashion retail brand founded by Burton Group (later renamed Arcadia Group) in 1978. Along with its women's clothing counterpart Topshop and the rest of Arcadia Group, Topman went into administration i ...

''. The snapbacks and bucket hats went on sale in the summer. Edwards co-founded UGOT, a yogurt, juice and health bar chain with entrepreneur Jo Carnell. In December 2014, Edwards was appointed a MBE for his services to music. In January 2016, SBTV announced the launch of SBTV News, an online news service, in partnership with the Press Association, chaired by former EMAP, Hearst, Axel Springer and Future CEO Colin Morrison.

Services

SBTV is built on three core services: broadcasting, production and editorial services.

Broadcasting

SBTV continue to broadcast video whether for music, freestyle, acoustic, interviews or any other categories within youth culture. All of the company's content is displayed on their YouTube channel. This content is mainly produced by SBTV but they do allow submissions as well. The company also uses social networking extensively to interact with viewers through which new blog and news articles are published.

Production

Just like broadcasting, SBTV has always produced its own content and have developed new techniques over time. Most of the content is shot in "fast and agile situations" to deliver an enticing perspective for the viewer. Among the videos that are shot, produced and directed by SBTV are music videos, documentaries and SBTV event material.

Editorial

The majority of employees at SBTV have experience in various printed urban publications and therefore know how to present material to a younger audience. This includes providing the latest news on music releases, films, music videos and artists.

References

External links

sbtv.co.uk
* {{Hip hop websites British music industry Companies based in the City of Westminster Mass media companies established in 2006 YouTube channels British music websites Hip hop websites 2006 establishments in England Internet properties established in 2006

History

Services

Broadcasting

Production

Editorial

See also

References

External links