Total Black TV Fills Void Left By BET
The site serves the seasoned and emerging content producer by offering the choice of mailing DVDs AVIs or film cassettes to a post office box or uploading to the site. Video viewing is limited to a particular PC during free streaming or purchased downloads secured from file sharing, using Microsoft DRM technology. Thus, producers have another avenue to get their story to the public.
Total Black TV is also a social networking site where members can share photos, videos and messages among themselves or a select group. This part of the site is called totalblacktv.com/myview and requires a separate account registration from the main site. Registration has a page where members may invite eight family members and eight friends/coworkers.
New York attorney Kevin Golding owns Total Black TV and initially launched it in 2005 to serve Ausar Auset Society, an international cultural organization. The site went from distributing Ra Un Nefer Amen’s Kamitic lifestyle videos to branching out to other content producers. Golding says, “The idea of people watching such historians and health practioners as Dr. Sebi, Dr. John H. Clarke, and Dr. ben-Jochannan on an iPod was an exciting proposition.”
Rather than seek angel investors or venture capitalists, Golding and Promotions and Marketing Coordinator Amar Divine opted to make alliances with colleges, film festivals and individual video producers. The corporation co-sponsored the 2007 African Film Festival in Edinborough, Scotland. Angie LeMar, a popular radio host on England’s Choice FM interviewed Golding on location. These international links result in site visitors from Kenya, Belgium, Hawaii, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Canada and South Africa. The latest promotion is the TBTV Dance Competition where dancers submit videos of their dance routines to totalblacktv.com/myview rather than travel to a geographic location. The submission deadline is Saturday, June 7, 2008.
Amar Divine is driven to present positive images and ideas produced by people of color. Divine compares TotalBlackTV.com to a cable station that promotes black media but “isn’t representative of positive black culture [nor] produced by black people.” Rather, Divine aspires to experience similar success to that of cinemanow.com.
The corporate team is planning a launch party slated for September 2008. Academicians, performers and emerging producers have been extended invitations. While the team is keeping the details of the event under wraps, it is sure to be extraordinary to introduce such a well-conceived Web site.
Labels: black interest, media, social networking, society, streaming video, technology
posted by Unknown @ 1:24 AM
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