Aspire TV (American TV network)

This article is about the American pay television network. For the Australian television channel, see Aspire TV (Australian TV channel). For other uses, see Aspire (disambiguation).

Aspire TV is an American pay television channel targeting African Americans owned by UP Entertainment. The network was launched by Magic Johnson on June 27, 2012.

Aspire

Country	United States
Broadcast area	United States
Headquarters	Atlanta, Georgia
Programming
Picture format	1080i HDTV (downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
Owner	Up Entertainment
Sister channels	Up TV
History
Launched	June 27, 2012; 13 years ago (2012-06-27)
Former names	Aspire (2012–2018)
Links
Website	www.aspire.tv

History

As part of its arrangement to acquire a minority interest in NBCUniversal, Comcast Corporation committed to carry several minority-owned channels.^[1] The arrangement followed pressure led by Maxine Waters in congressional hearings.^[2] In April 2011, Comcast solicited proposals for minority-owned networks.^[3] In February 2012, Comcast announced distribution arrangements for four networks, including Aspire.^[4] The four announced networks and six forthcoming stations were chosen from among an excess of 100 proposals to begin airing by 2020.

In 2019, Magic Johnson had divested his majority ownership, with UP Entertainment gaining it.^[5]

Programming

Aspire TV holds the broadcast rights to a selection of CIAA college football games involving historically black colleges and universities.

Current

• 6 Minutes To Glory: The HBCU Band Experience
• The Bernie Mac Show
• Chaos to Calm
• City Eats: Atlanta
• Downright Delicious with Yo-Yo
• G. Garvin Live
• HBCU 101
• Keasha's Perfect Dress
• Money Moves
• My Wife and Kids
• The Steve Harvey Show
• Twisted Dish
• Unboxed with Nikki Chu
• Urban Indie Film Block
• Whose Line Is It Anyway?

Former

• Black College Quiz
• The Bill Cosby Show
• Butter+Brown
• The Flip Wilson Show
• The Graduates ATL
• The Hughleys
• In Living Color
• In the House
• I Spy
• Julia
• Just Angela
• Lincoln Heights
• The Mod Squad
• Room 222
• Side by Side With Malika & Khadijah
• Soul Food
• Soul Train
• World Wide Nate: African Adventures

See also

• United States portal
• Television portal

See also: African_Americans § Media_and_coverage

• BET – American basic cable and satellite channel currently owned by Paramount, which launched in 1980 as the first television network devoted to programming targeting African-Americans.
  • BET Her – spinoff/sister network targeting African-American women.
• Bounce TV – American digital multicast network owned by E. W. Scripps Company.
• TheGrio – American digital multicast/cable network owned by Allen Media Group
• TV One – Cable and satellite network targeting African-Americans, owned by Urban One.
  • Cleo TV – Spinoff/sister network targeting African-American women.