BET Networks Enters Into Partnership with Live Nation to Promote Concert Tours in House of Blues and Additional Venues

Sep 21, 2009
By ViacomCBS Staff

106 & PARK TOUR First in a Series of National Club Tours

BET Networks today announced that they have teamed up with the world's largest live music company, Live Nation, to produce a series of U.S. club and theater tours including the House of Blues and additional venues across the country.

The partnership kicks off with this fall's first-ever 106 & PARK TOUR, on which Trey Songz and Mario co-headline, along with Day 26, Sean Garrett and RydazNRtist, a new group signed to Nick Cannon's NCredible Entertainment. The 106 & PARK TOUR will kick off September 29th at House of Blues in Los Angeles and will run through November, making stops in major markets including New York, Atlanta, Houston, Dallas, Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington, and St. Louis. BET Networks will serve as the tour's exclusive media partner.

"We're extremely excited about BET LIVE and the limitless opportunities this new venture presents," said Martez Moore, SVP -- Strategy and Business Development, BET Networks. "With Live Nation's unparalleled expertise in live concerts and an unmatched network of venues, we will be able to offer our partners a wealth of expertise about the African-American and urban markets, and together will bring the best in live entertainment directly to our core audience and communities."

"BET is a brand that is highly respected by artists and music fans alike and they wield considerable marketing power in major markets across the U.S.," said Michael Yerke, President of Talent at House of Blues. "Together we hope to expand the roster of national tours playing Live Nation's national network of clubs and theaters."

For information about the latest events from BET LIVE, please visit www.bet.com/live.

About BET Networks

BET Networks, a division of Viacom Inc. (NYSE: 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 98 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; BET Digital Networks -- BET J, 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 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 Live Nation

Live Nation's mission is to maximize the live concert experience. Our core business is producing, marketing and selling live concerts for artists via our global concert pipe. Live Nation is the largest producer of live concerts in the world, annually producing over 22,000 concerts for 1,600 artists in 33 countries. During 2008, the company sold over 50 million concert tickets and drove over 70 million unique visitors to LiveNation.com. Live Nation is transforming the concert business by expanding its concert platform into ticketing and building the industry's first artist-to-fan vertically integrated concert platform. The company is headquartered in Los Angeles, California and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange, trading under the symbol LYV. For additional information about the company, please visit www.livenation.com/investors.

Jeanine Liburd, +1-212-205-3011
jeanine.liburd@bet.net
or
Marcy Polanco, +1-212-975-3327
marcy.polanco@bet.net
both of BET Networks