UPDATED: TV One later this month will end production of its live, daily news program News One Now, hosted byRoland Martin.

The two-hour, morning news/public affairs program targeted to African-American audiences will end its run Dec. 21, according to the New York Post, which first printed the story.

TV One said Friday that it would look to "restructure" News One Now in 2018 under a new format that will better serve its audience and advertisers. “Providing a platform for Black voices is in the DNA of our entire company,” said TV One CEO Alfred Liggins in a statement.  “As a Black-owned multi-media company, Urban One (parent company of TV One) engages Black America daily, not just on television, but radio and also online via NewsOne.com and on 77 digital platforms.  We know there is a void in mainstream media and we plan to continue to be an outlet for Black news. Roland Martin will be a part of that plan.”

RELATED: TV One to Expand 'News "One Now' to Two Hours

TV One interim general manager Michelle Rice said that the network made the “difficult” decision to suspend production of the show due to costs. “We had to make a tough decision to suspend a show we all love.  Despite the best efforts of the many talented people who work on this amazing show day to day, NewsOne Now struggled to attract a wide audience. Like any other network, we had to make a difficult choice," she said. 

 TV One in a tweet said it will continue its “long-standing relationship” with Roland Martin. 

We are committed to providing quality news to our viewers and to our long-standing relationship with @rolandsmartin#NewsOneNow who will continue to have a voice on #TVOne.

— TV One (@tvonetv) December 7, 2017

Martin also turned to Twitter to announce the end of the show, which launched in 2013 and was expanded to two hours this past September. 

Fam, the sad news is true. The staff of @tvonetv#NewsOneNow was informed this afternoon that after four years of doing groundbreaking and award-winning work, the show will cease production at the end of the year. Our last live show will be Dec. 21. #BringTheFunk

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) December 7, 2017

Related (Video): Roland Martin discusses 'News One Now's' 2016 Presidential election coverage

TV One will expand its morning news/talk show offerings from one to three hours with an expanded version of News One Now and the addition of a live talk show, the network said during its upfront presentation Thursday.

The Roland Martin-hosted News One Now will expand from one hour to two hours beginning in the third quarter, said network officials. The series will also be renamed Black America Today to better reflect the show’s focus on news and issues that affect the African-American community, Martin told Multichannel News.

Martin -- who told the gathering of press and advertisers that next week on News One Now he would “eulogize” Fox News Channel personality Bill O’Reilly, who earlier this week was let go by the network amid sexual harassment allegations – also said that the News One Now’s new two-hour format will allow the show to provide more in-depth coverage of breaking news and issues.

“There’s so much news that exists out there that we literally can’t fit it into a one hour format,” Martin told Multichannel News. “The extra hour allows us to stretch ourselves to do more, and also allows us to go deeper into some subjects.”

TV One later this year will also add a live, multi-platform, one-hour daily talk show featuring four as yet names female hosts that will focus on issues impacting the everyday lives of African-American women, said D’Angela Proctor, TV One senior vice president of original programming and production.

 In other TV One upfront news:

--The network will expand its Sunday true crime & justice programming block to a Monday nights with the development of several new series, including Two Sides Of The Truth, executively produced by Viola Davis; Evidence of Innocence; Hotlanta; #Murder and Thou Shalt Not.

--TV One will develop several original movies based on R&B music groups Xscape & DeBarge, as well as on the lives of Bobbi Kristina, the daughter of Whitney Houston and Bobby Brown, and civil rights icon Rosa Parks.

Multicultural entertainment networks are prepping for the biggest entertainment event of the summer: the Democratic and Republican conventions, and their respective presumptive presidential nominees, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

This month, networks such as Fuse, Revolt, BET and TV One will provide both TV and digital coverage of the Republican National Convention in Cleveland (July 18-21) and the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia (July 25-28).

Providing news coverage through a multicultural lens — especially during an important and unpredictable campaign season — should appeal to the networks’ target viewers despite the channels’ entertainment-programming pedigrees, network executives said.

“I think the landscape for this particular election season is uncharted territory,” Fuse Media CEO Michael Schwimmer said. “We have candidates on both sides that are controversial, and particularly on the Republican side, with regard to the Hispanic community. I don’t think we’ve seen this kind of change and acrimony in a way that so directly effects our audience.”

Fuse will air segments from the convention both on its air and online. They will be reported by correspondents Arlene Santana and James Villalobos, who were chosen by Fuse viewers last month as part of the network’s “Crash the Parties” initiative with nonprofit political organization Voto Latino, Schwimmer said.

Having covered the 2008 and 2012 conventions, Schwimmer added that there is far more interest among young viewers this year than in the previous elections.

“The interest in both candidates, along with the explosion of social media over the past eight years, makes this a better experience for us as an organization and for viewers who will get that content multiple ways,” Schwimmer said.

TV One president and CEO Brad Siegel said the network’s live daily coverage from the convention floors, via morning news program News One Now with Roland Martin, will provide its African-American audience with a more in-depth look at the issues important to them.

The show’s website, newsone.com, will also offer live reports from the conventions.

“Viewers expect us to be covering the most important news of the day, and be able to interpret and ask the questions of the newsmakers regarding how their politics affects African-Americans,” he said. “That’s our job — to ask the questions from a perspective that no one else is asking, and our viewers expect us to represent their point of view, their situations and how their policies affect their lives.”

Coverage of the conventions won’t be limited to what’s happening in the arenas. Revolt TV chief political correspondent Amrit Singh said he plans to complement the network’s convention coverage with reports from outside the proceedings, where major protests are expected.

“The story there is not only what’s happening in the convention halls but very much what’s happening in the streets,” he said.

As part of Revolt’s “Revolt 2 Vote” initiative, the network will feature live segments from the convention floor that will air on the network’s daily Revolt Live show as well as on network website revolt.tv, Singh said. The network will also break into regularly scheduled programming during the conventions to offer live updates and interviews from the convention floors, he added.

“These conventions are really four-day reality shows,” Singh said. “This is really an opportunity to galvanize the attention of our audience.”

Myx Tv general manager Miguel Santos added that a diverse offering of voices and images on television helps to assure that all voters have a chance to have their issues and concerns heard. 

“It’s important for multicultural networks to ensure that their viewers feel like they have a voice and their needs are being addressed,” said Santos, whose network is in process of planning its on-air and online election coverage.

“You’ll hear presidential candidates say ‘We have the African-American, Latino and event the LGBTQ+ vote’ but rarely is there a mention of Asian Americans," he added. "Our viewers need to know that  they can and should demand more attention because their votes matter too.”

Bill O’Reilly’s recent comments on Fox News Channel’s The O’Reilly Factor regarding the “Black Lives Matter” movement have spurred a fierce Twitter reaction from Roland Martin, host of TV One’s News One Now. Martin wants to confront O’Reilly on-air regarding the protest movement involving mostly young African-Americans calling for change following several controversial police shootings of unarmed black men.

O’Reilly called the Black Lives Matter movement “a hate group” after a video emerged of some movement protesters in Minnesota chanting that police were “pigs in a blanket” in the aftermath of the shooting death of a Texas sheriff. O’Reilly also said he plans to put the movement “out of business,” and would publicly out any journalist who supports the Black Lives Matter movement.

Since then, Martin said he has unsuccessfully lobbied O’Reilly’s producers to appear on The O’Reilly Factor to debate the popular news/talk host about what he calls misconceptions about the movement. Martin also has made several Twitter posts calling out O’Reilly, as well as CNN’s Don Lemon and other TV news personalities, for “nonsense” they’ve stated regarding Black Lives Matter.

This past week (Sept. 9), Martin upped the ante on Twitter, saying “I Challenge @FoxNews, @oreillyfactor, @megynkelly @TheFive @ TheJuanWilliams to debate me about #Black-LivesMatter facts.”

“When somebody lies and distorts the truth they should be held accountable for it,” Martin told The Wire. “He opened the door by saying if there are any journalists out there who support Black Lives Matter, he’s going to put them on the network and call them out. And I said fine, I’ll raise my hand.

“I just want to correct the record. I don’t believe that people should go on and say things that are factually incorrect — if you disagree with a movement, fine, but you are going to be held accountable if you flat-out lie,” Martin said. “There are things that Bill O’Reilly has said that are simply not true, so we are certainly going to hold his feet to the fire and others as well.”

Fox News did not respond for comment. 

— R. Thomas Umstead

FCC Dish Decision Draws Praise From ‘Porker’ Patrol

Dish Network was featured in the most recent issue of the Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) e-newsletter, but it probably would just as soon not have been.

CAGW gave the FCC a shout-out for unanimously denying Dish-affiliated designated entities Northstar Wireless, LLC and SNR Wireless — satellite-TV provider Dish owns 85% of both, through a joint venture — over $3 billion in bidding credits in the agency’s AWS-3 wireless spectrum auction. That means $3 billion more into the U.S. Treasury, which is getting a chunk of the auction proceeds after the funding of FirstNet and some research.

Calling it a victory for taxpayers, CAGW president Tom Schatz said: “The FCC auctions are a valuable method to increase the availability of spectrum, increase innovation, and raise money for taxpayers. The process must meet the highest standards of fairness and integrity.”

It’s no big surprise that the FCC’s decision would make news with CAGW, best known for its “porker” awards for its identification of what it says is government waste. (Dish memorably sent up cable companies as greedy pigs in ads about a decade ago, so turnabout might be fair play.) CAGW teamed up with other taxpayer groups to ask the FCC to deny the credits back in May, saying a grant would come “at the peril of [the FCC’s] already diminishing credibility.” Ouch.

Dish saw it quite differently, suggesting its participation was one of the big reasons the auction raked in so much dough in the first place.

“Our approach to the AWS-3 auction, which followed 20 years of FCC precedent and complied with all legal requirements, was intended to enhance competition — in the auction and in the marketplace long-term,” Dish senior vice president and deputy general counsel Jeff Blum told The Wire.

— John Eggerton

TV One will move its News One Now morning news show to 7 a.m. from 9 a.m. beginning Sept. 14, according to network officials.

The weekday one-hour news program, hosted by Roland Martin, focuses on news and analysis of politics, entertainment, sports, and culture from an explicitly African American perspective. TV One said the show, which has grossed almost 2 million total viewers since its inception in Nov. 2013, hopes to expand the show's potential audience by moving it to the 7 a.m. hour when other news shows such as ABC's Good Morning America and NBC's Today air. 

“After almost two years on the air as the only live daily news program targeting the African American viewer, we are confident News One Now is ready to take on the traditional morning news crowd,”Martin said in a statement. “In this uber-competitive news landscape, it is imperative we make available to the broadest audience possible the in-depth relevance our unique perspective provides. We know viewers have a multitude of options at 7 a.m. for their first news of the day, and we believe the diversity of our focus and continual coverage of issues of import to the African America community will resonate significantly.”