Allen Media Group’s multicast network TheGrio.TV will expand its distribution to 11 major markets with carriage on the Fox Television Stations beginning Jan. 15, 2021 — the start of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.

TheGrio.TV will feature African American-focused content reaching more than 100 million U.S. households via over-the-air television stations, cable/telco/satellite platforms and free digital streaming.

TheGrio.TV — with its “Our Culture Forever” brand — will feature movies, sitcoms, dramas, concerts, talk shows, variety shows, game shows, news and lifestyle content.

The 11 Fox-owned markets are: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, Houston, Atlanta, Phoenix, Minneapolis and Orlando, Fla. These eleven U.S. television markets represent 29.6% of general market households and 36.3% of African-American households.

Byron Allen, founder/chairman/CEO of Allen Media Group, said: “The Grio — which means ‘storyteller’ in Africa — is the first platform to offer an online digital news destination, a free streaming app providing local news, weather, sports, traffic, and entertainment content geofenced to the user’s ZIP code, and an over-the-air broadcast television network.

“With the Fox owned-and-operated stations coming on board as our launch group, TheGrio.TV over-the-air 24/7 broadcast television network is now positioned for long-term sustainable success.”

At one time owned by NBCUniversal, TheGrio.com was purchased by Byron Allen in 2016 when it had less than 1 million monthly active users. This summer, Allen Media said TheGrio.com “achieved its peak of over 10.5 million monthly active users. TheGrio.com is now one of the most visited news and entertainment sites for the African-American community, and is the largest employer of African-American journalists.”