NYC Entrepreneur To Launch New Cable TV Network

ake notice BET. You have another competitor. A Harlem entrepreneur is launching a cable TV network aimed at the multi-cultural market, according to the New York Daily News. UBC-TV, or Urban Broadcasting Company, will broadcast from Harlem and reach 40 million homes, in addition to viewers on the Internet.

Founder Peggy Dodson describes the network as a trailblazer. “I love ‘Jeffersons’ reruns, but that’s not the kind of network we want to be,” she told the Daily News. “We’re probably more like the CW or Bravo than BET,” she said. UBC-TV will initially air four hours of prime-time programming per day and is “developing shows on style, beauty, personal finance, food, health, small business and fitness,” the Daily News says. UBC-TV also plans to air American Basketball Association games and “a news/talk show hosted by long-time local TV and radio journalist Felipe Luciano.” The network will also feature an updated Soul Train/American Band Stand, called “The UBC Dance Mix Show.”

Dodson is a former jazz singer who has run a self-empowerment business for more than a decade. She put $600,000 of her own money into the project and spent eight years raising the rest. DoNY wishes her the best.