Los Angeles, CA – June 29, 2015 – The live premiere of the "BET AWARDS" 2015 on Sunday, June 28, is now Cable’s #1 Award Show in 2015.   BET Awards 2015 premiere night, which aired simultaneously on BET and CENTRIC, drew in nearly 12 million total viewers during the evening beginning with the BET Pre-Show (6-8 p.m. EST) with 1.9 million viewers, the BET Awards 2015 premiere (8 p.m. – 11:50 p.m. EST) had 6.5 million viewers and the BET Post-Show (11:50 p.m.-12:54 a.m. EST) brought in 3.4 million viewers.  Hosted by Tracee Ellis Ross and Anthony Anderson, stars of the hit show “Black-ish,” the night featured electric performances and unforgettable moments including the Bad Boy  anniversary reunion, The Weeknd and Alicia Keys, the cast of “Empire,” Tori Kelly, Ciara, Robin Thicke, Meek Mill, Chris Brown, Jason DeRulo, Janelle Monae and many more. Janet Jackson was honored with the inaugural Ultimate Icon Award while Smokey Robinson received the Lifetime Achievement Award and Tom Joyner was given this year’s Humanitarian Award.

For the third consecutive year, the BET Experience at L.A. LIVE, presented by Coca-Cola® in partnership with AEG, attracted thousands of visitors to the downtown Los Angeles area.  "The overall attendance was 152,500 fans over the 4-day event which is a 36% increase from 2014‎. The Fan Fest included a series of dynamic events including live music, Sprite Celebrity Basketball Game, Genius Talks with Kobe Bryant, Floyd Mayweather and Erykah Badu.  The BET Experience also featured electrifying concerts from A-list talent including Kevin Hart, Nicki Minaj, Kendrick Lamar, Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg, The Roots, Lauryn Hill and Miguel.

The live telecast of "BET AWARDS" 2015 is the #1 Most Social Cable Special this year.   Additionally, last night’s #BETAWARDS 2015 became the second most Social Special on all of TV this year. #BET AWARDS was a worldwide trending topic on Twitter, and trended in the United States for over 8 hours!  Fans were engaged on various platforms with entertainment’s hottest night including Snapchat, Vine, Tumblr, Twitter and Facebook.

The BET Awards 2015 included several new Social activations:
·         Viewers were given access to a new Twitter Robot that roamed the aisles of the BET Awards, capturing crowd moments and reaction
·         On Periscope, live streaming content from the red carpet and backstage at the awards. Hosted by Jacob Latimore, Verizon allowed fans to stream the BET Awards Pre-Show for the first time ever by following @BETAwards.  Additional Periscope broadcasts featured Justine Skye by Covergirl and more access brought in by Pantene.
·         BET Digital partnered with Snapchat on the day of BET Awards ‘15 to execute a 'BET Awards Live Story,' aggregating awards show snaps from talent, celebrities and users at L.A. Live, the grounds surrounding the BET Awards.  The partnership resulted in millions of Snapchat users being able to experience the Awards form a variety of vantage points, as if they were there in person.
·         Viewers also received exclusive Backstage access via the McDonald’s Live Stream hosted by “Real Husbands of Hollywood” Co-Creator Chris Spencer
Additional social highlights include:
·         @BET Periscope platform increased 184% during the BET Experience and BET Awards night
·         Instagram posts tagged with the hashtag #BETAwards increased 60% year over
·         The BET Now App also peeked on awards night creating a 169% increase in video views
·         BET's Facebook page reached 4.3 million unique users, and the BET Awards page reached 3.3 million unique users, generating 41 million total impressions
·         BET’s partnership with Instagram and Facebook created the first-ever Instagram music video, directed by the acclaimed musical director Benny Boom on the Red Carpet of the 2015 BET Awards.  The #BETInstacarpet used a combination of slow motion and hyper lapse camera techniques, among other effects, to create 15-second segments with all participating celebrities. (Watch the full music video — with an original track by Just Blaze — will be available on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/BET/videos/10152860863235404/)

Official sponsors of the "BET AWARDS" 2015 include Coca-Cola®, Cricket Wireless, Domino’s, Macy’s, McDonald’s, Nissan, Samsung, State Farm and Verizon.

The "BET AWARDS" 2015 took place in Los Angeles, along with the BET Experience at L.A. LIVE presented by Coca-Cola® from June 25-28th. The show aired live on Sunday, June 28, 2015 at 8 p.m. EST/PST.  For a list of winners, performances and must-see moments visit www.bet.com/betawards. 

Additional encore viewings of “BET Awards” 2015 will air on:

BET Networks
·         Monday, June 29 at 8 p.m. EST*
·         Tuesday, June 30 at 4 p.m. EST
·         Sunday, July 5 at 7 p.m. EST

CENTRIC
·         Wednesday, July 7 at p.m. EST
·         Friday, July 10 at 6 p.m. EST

“The "BET Awards" 2015 will premiere around the world on BET's international network on Tuesday, June 30 at 9:00pm BST / 10:00pm CAT and will air live on MTV Australia for the very first time (check local listings).”

Stephen Hill, BET’s President of Programming, Connie Orlando, BET’s Senior Vice President of Specials, Music and News and Lynne Harris Taylor, BET’s Vice President of Specials, served as Executive Producers for the "BET AWARDS" 2015, along with Jesse Collins, CEO of Jesse Collins Entertainment.

*All times ET/PT

Source: Nielsen, 1/1/15 to 6/28/15, specials, ranked on Tweets
Source: Trendinalia
Source: Instagram
Source: Nielsen, 6/28/15, live/new, excluding sports events)

About BET Awards
The “BET Awards” is one of the most watched award shows on cable television according to the Nielsen Company. The “BET Awards” franchise remains as the #1 program in cable TV history among African-Americans, and it is BET's #1 telecast every year. It recognizes the triumphs and successes of artists, entertainers, and athletes in a variety of categories.

About BET Networks
BET Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom Inc. (NASDAQ: VIA, VIA.B), is the nation’s leading provider of quality entertainment, music, news and public affairs television programming for the African-American audience. The primary BET channel reaches more than 90 million households and can be seen in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, the United Kingdom and sub-Saharan Africa. BET is the dominant African-American consumer brand with a diverse group of business extensions: BET.com, a leading Internet destination for Black entertainment, music, culture, and news; CENTRIC, shouldn’t this be updated to its focus being AA women? a 24-hour entertainment network targeting the 25- to 54-year-old African-American audience; BET Digital Networks - BET Gospel and BET Hip Hop, attractive alternatives for cutting-edge entertainment tastes; BET Home Entertainment, a collection of BET-branded offerings for the home environment including DVDs and video-on-demand; BET Event Productions, a full-scale event management and production company with festivals and live events spanning the globe; BET Mobile, which provides ringtones, games and video content for wireless devices; and BET International, which operates BET in the United Kingdom and oversees the extension of BET network programming for global distribution.

About AEG
AEG is one of the leading sports and entertainment presenters in the world. AEG, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Anschutz Company, owns or is affiliated with a collection of companies including more than 100 of the world’s preeminent facilities such as STAPLES Center (Los Angeles), StubHub Center (Carson, CA), Best Buy Theater (Times Square, New York), Sprint Center, (Kansas City),  Target Center (Minneapolis), Mercedes-Benz Arena (Shanghai, China), MasterCard Center (Beijing, China), O2 World Hamburg, Allphones Arena (Sydney, Australia), Ericsson Globe Arena (Stockholm, Sweden), O2 World Arena (Berlin, Germany) and The O2 Arena and entertainment district (London, England), which are all part of the portfolio of AEG Facilities. Developed by AEG, L.A. LIVE is a 4 million square foot / $3 billion downtown Los Angeles sports, residential & entertainment district featuring Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE; Club Nokia; a 54-story, 1001-room convention “headquarters” destination; along with entertainment, restaurant and office space that officially opened in 2010.  AEG Live, the company’s live-entertainment division, is the world’s second largest concert promotion and touring company, and is comprised of touring, festival, exhibition, broadcast, merchandise and special event divisions with fifteen regional offices.  AEG Global Partnerships, a division responsible for worldwide sales and servicing of sponsorships naming rights and other strategic partnerships.  In addition to overseeing privately held management shares of the Los Angeles Lakers, assets of AEG Sports include franchises such as the LA Kings, LA Galaxy and Houston Dynamo and the Amgen Tour of California cycling stage race.  In 2010, AEG launched its AEG 1EARTH environmental program with the announcement of 2020 environmental goals and the release of the industry’s first sustainability report. And in 2011, AEG introduced AXS, a comprehensive entertainment platform serving as the company’s primary consumer brand, including AXS Ticketing, which provides fans the opportunity to purchase tickets directly from their favorite venues via a user-friendly ticketing interface, Examiner.com and the AXS TV network. For additional information, visit http://www.aegworldwide.com.

###

Follow us on Twitter @ BET_PR


MEDIA CONTACTS:

Sonia Koo
(310) 481-3732
Sonia.Koo@bet.net

Gina Stikes
(212) 205-3225
Gina.Stikes@bet.net