Ties to Comcast Unite the Two Networks
NBC News and TV One are partnering to provide joint coverage on the final nights of the Republican and Democratic conventions, as well as election night, the two networks announced on Wednesday.
“As part of the partnership, TV One will air a four-hour broadcast on the final evening of the Republican (8:00pm-12:00am / ET, Thursday, August 30th) and Democratic (8:00pm-12:00am / ET, Thursday, September 6th) conventions featuring TV One correspondents and veteran political reporters from NBC News and theGrio (www.TheGrio.com), NBC News’ video-centric news site devoted to stories and perspectives that appeal to the African-American community,” the announcement said.
“NBC News’ Craig Melvin will anchor all three evenings of coverage from NBC’s Washington, DC studios and TV One’s Washington Watch host Roland Martin will round out coverage with additional segments and analysis.”
“. . . Kim Bondy is executive producer and Kerri Forrest is senior producer for TV One’s election and convention coverage.” Bondy is a former CNN vice president for morning programming and senior executive producer of CNN’s “American Morning” with Soledad O’Brien and Bill Hemmer,
Melvin joined MSNBC a year ago from NBC-owned WRC in Washington. He has anchored the weekend edition of the “Today Show” and reported from Newark during February’s coverage of the funeral of Whitney Houston. His name was in the gossip columns in October after he married Lindsay Czarniak of ESPN, a co-worker at WRC.
TV One and NBC are both at least partly owned by Comcast Corp. Comcast acquired NBC Universal last year. As of last year, Comcast owned 49 percent of TV One, a partnership with Radio One.
The election collaboration represents the latest in partnering among news organizations with the same parent organization.
While TV One aims at an older demographic than Black Entertainment Television, both networks offered their own coverage of key moments in the 2008 election. BET is owned by Viacom, as is CBS, and BET had access to CBS News resources.