The move with BuzzFeed is one of many major transitions for Allen this year, as his ‘Comics Unleashed’ series will take over the time slot previously held by ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ on CBS later this month.
Byron Allen is adding another major digital brand to his portfolio: BuzzFeed.
On Monday, the digital media brand announced it had entered into a transaction agreement with Allen Family Digital, LLC, an affiliate of Allen’s family office, under which Buzzfeed would accept a majority investment valued at $120 million. Allen will succeed Buzzfeed founder and CEO Jonah Peretti as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, while Peretti will shift to a newly created role as President of Buzzfeed AI upon the deal’s closing.
The deal is expected to close at the end of the month.
“Byron Allen has built one of the world’s largest media companies and is one of the most accomplished media entrepreneurs in the industry, having spent 30-plus years transforming distribution infrastructure, identifying strategic assets, and scaling them into something much greater,” Peretti said in a statement. “Byron’s vision, operational experience, and long-term commitment to premium content makes him exceptionally well-positioned to lead BuzzFeed and HuffPost into our next phase of growth. And personally, I’m thrilled Byron is taking over ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’s’ time slot, and highly confident that his relationships with talent will bring some incredible stars to the BuzzFeed platform.”
With Allen’s arrival, BuzzFeed Studios, which features vertical micro-drama series, animation, digital video and a premium studio that includes feature films, will be an independent entity along with Tasty.
Peretti has served as BuzzFeed’s CEO since the company’s inception in 2006.
“Jonah is a great visionary and has done a phenomenal job. BuzzFeed and HuffPost have become two iconic global digital media brands with powerful audience reach and strong cultural importance,” Allen said. “Our vision is to build on the iconic foundation of BuzzFeed and HuffPost by expanding into free-streaming video, audio and user-generated content. As of this moment, with the power of AI, BuzzFeed is officially chasing YouTube to become another premiere free video streaming service.”
Allen is the founder and chairman of Allen Media Group, which is based in Los Angeles. He owns 13 ABC, CBS and NBC network affiliate broadcast television stations in 11 U.S. markets and 10 HD television networks serving nearly 275 million subscribers (including The Weather Channel, Pets.tv, Comedy.tv, Recipe.tv, Cars.tv, ES.tv, MyDestination.tv, JusticeCentral.tv, theGrio and HBCU GO).
Later this month, Allen’s two-hour comedy block on CBS will begin. His longtime series “Comics Unleashed” will move up to the 11:35 PM EST timeslot previously held by “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” on CBS. After “Comics Unleashed,” another Allen-owned property, “Funny You Should Ask,” will air right after. The deal for both shows will last through the 2026-27 television season.
“After 20 years as CEO of BuzzFeed, I’m excited to switch my focus to a more hands-on role developing products and technology that are only possible because of recent advances in AI. I’m convinced that AI will fundamentally transform the media industry and empower creative people to build in new ways, and I believe the opportunity is enormous,” Peretti said.
