Whoopi Goldberg-Backed Streaming Service Blkfam Launches, Targeting Black Families

A new streaming service is launching Monday, one with a very specific focus and a very famous investor.

Blkfam, which is targeting Black family audiences, is founded by WarnerMedia veteran Larry Adams, with Whoopi Goldberg on board as an equity investor and a creative force.

“I’m the marketing, distribution, business guy, she’s the creative powerhouse behind this that’s going to make it really magical,” Adams tells The Hollywood Reporter in an interview.

Adams says the idea for Blkfam came while realizing that major streaming services like Netflix and Max were not adequately serving the Black family audience. He recalled scrolling through the Black Voices section of one service and noting that “it was kind of like a grab bag. It really felt like you have rows and rows of Black voices, but a lot of it wasn’t curated for my family.”

“When I was developing the HBO Max go-to-market strategy, we identified that families are — from a business perspective — they are the ones that are on multiple streaming services. Most people are gonna have one or two, but families are gonna have up to eight, especially as we move to an unbundled world. You’re gonna need a lot of different types of content sources for folks and I realized, no one’s addressing Black family streamers. We need content that is curated and that is OK to watch alone but certainly able to watch together.”

Blkfam will launch with about 1,000 hours of content, including 20 syndicated series, with 10 original animated and live-action shows in development, per Adams. There will also be news, fitness, and wellness programming.

“It hits the spot of like, OK, this is great for understanding the diaspora, the African diaspora, which is not just Black in America, but globally,” Adams says. “Then we have content that we’re looking at licensing that’s for the millennial mom and the millennial dad and knowing that sweet spot of our family is younger and looking for a little bit more content that’s way more relevant.”

And then there’s Goldberg, who is an equity investor, alongside Whoop Inc. president Tom Leonardis.

“Tactically what she brings to the table is a deep understanding of how great content gets done, but more so she has actual IP that she’s been working on,” Adams says. “She’s got a book series that we will bring to life, she’s got show ideas — she’s also, to me, a great arbiter of taste on what should be showing up on the on the platform. So she’s really bringing her expertise entertainment across multiple kinds of categories.”

Blkfam is ad-supported, though Adams says that in addition to more traditional commercial spots, he is hoping to get brands integrated into content as co-producers.

Let’s get your values articulated in a piece of content that’s new, that’s entertaining, and gives us the ability to greenlight something that maybe wasn’t possible,” Adams says.

Blkfam is available on iOS, Android, Prime Video Channels, Roku, YouTube TV, Vizio, LG, Samsung and Fire TV devices.