Paramount Haggling With Tyler Perry Over Sale Price of BET; Final Bids Due in July

Paramount’s deal with Tyler Perry for the sale of BET Media Group isn’t as complete as some outlets reported earlier this month. According to The New York Post, Perry is still negotiating with Paramount over the price of the cable channel, and is not currently willing to meet the $3 billion asking price.

Perry already owns 25% of BET and its streaming sibling BET+, and has been considered a front-runner ever since throwing his hat into the ring in March. That’s when it was first reported that Paramount was looking to sell BET Media Group — which includes BET, BET+, and VH1 — so the company could focus all of its streaming efforts on Paramount+ and SHOWTIME.

But Paramount doesn’t want to let BET go for less than $3 billion, which is understandable considering it paid $2.7 billion for the channels in 2000 when the company was called Viacom. But cord cutting is continuing to bite deeply into the revenues generated by cable channels these days, and many investors sympathize with Perry’s mindset that $3 billion is too much to pay.

A source close to the negotiations said that while Perry is growing frustrated, talks are still ongoing. Final bids for BET Media Group are due in July, and other parties like The Weather Channel owner Byron Allen are still waiting in the wings. Group Black, a media company that attracted figures like rap artist 50 Cent and NBA star Shaquille O’Neal to bid on BET have backed out of the process.

That gives Paramount less leverage in the process, though the private equity firm Group Black had partnered with is seeking another potential ally in the bidding. Considering final bids are due in mere weeks, however, it’s difficult to envision another serious potential buyer emerging at this stage of the process.

The news of Perry’s frustration with Paramount comes just days before the company is set to launch a new streaming product, Paramount+ with Showtime on June 27. The service will replace Paramount+’s Premium tier, keeping all the content on that platform while bringing on shows and movies from SHOWTIME, which will no longer be offered as a standalone service. Paramount is also exploring a possible sale of its kids streaming platform Noggin, though that process has not played out as publicly as the BET sale.