Curtis '50 Cent' Jackson's Action Channel Launches In UK: 'This Is Big – I've Got A Huge Audience Out Here'
Just six months after the 50 Cent Action Channel debuted as a FAST channel in partnership with Lionsgate in the U.S., it has launched as a subscription service in the UK via Prime Video Channels, we can reveal.
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In an exclusive interview with Deadline, Jackson said the UK was always likely to be the channel's first overseas home. 'You know, everybody loves London,' he explained. 'If you're from New York, or you're a recording artist from America in general, the first stop and your first dose of international love is London.'
The UK might start to feel like a second home for rapper, actor and producer Jackson this year, with three June tour dates plus last week's announcement of Fightland, a Starz series set in the east London boxing world that he is exec producing. Fightland goes into production this year.
The news marks the first international expansion for Jackson's FAST network. As opposed to the FAST distribution in the U.S., the UK network is being offered as a Prime Video add-on for £3.99 ($5.43) a month following a seven-day free trial. It launched just before Jackson headlined the Parklife Concert Festival in Manchester, UK, on Saturday (June 14), and QR codes linking to the free trial offer were distributed at the concert.
Jackson and Lionsgate also see an opportunity to tap into the rapper's original UK fanbase, many of whom are now into middle-age after buying his first albums in the early 2000s. 'My audience, my core audience – the people that were enjoying my music in the very beginning – is at home,' he said. 'They're older. They'll understand the entertainment choices that I make creatively. I've used music to merge with entertainment.'
Lionsgate library and originals plans
50 Cent Action includes the 'In Da Club' rapper's favorite films and television series, action films such as Kill Bill: Volume 1 & 2, The Expendables, Righteous Kill, Nightcrawler and Mechanic: Resurrection, and many other films and television series drawn from Lionsgate's library comprising up to 1,000 hours of content.
Jackson and Lionsgate have a long-standing relationship with the latter owning Power network Starz until last year and continuing to sell the crime drama series internationally. 'It's been a cool partnership because they've been able to completely engage and get involved and they really enjoyed the concept, too,' said Jackson.
He told Deadline the more 50 Cent Action expands, the more likely it is we'll see original programs on the channel. 'There's an opportunity for me to launch originals that wouldn't even pitch out to the other networks,' he added. 'Creatively, I'll make it and put it onto the platform. You know you'll be ahead of the curve just following the culture.'
In the U.S., where Jackson and Lionsgate first partnered, 50 Cent Action has become the top action channel on The Roku Channel and LG Channels, as we revealed in April. It's also available on Prime Video, Plex, DirecTV, Vizio and Xumo.
While it will be an SVoD proposition in the UK, 50 Cent Action is considered one of the first talent-led FAST networks, using the power – pun intended – of 50 Cent's personality to drive fan engagement editorially and through direct social media. Jackson said this connection was crucial to the success.
'I don't think that they've figured out how to market the FAST channels,' said Jackson, noting that many simply repeat one popular show, limiting the scope and ambition. 'They just package portions of their content, put it up and let it roll, instead of trying to figure out a whole brand, a whole vibe. I want my FAST channel to feel like a cable network.'
Jackson admitted that being able to 'reach 110 million people through my phone' at any time does give him a unique advantage, as he outlined how he keeps his followers in the loop. 'It's on my mind all the time,' he said. 'I end up talking about it or I hashtag the actual '50 Cent Action', or the concept of a show, and then it works. It results in being number one on Roku and LG platforms.'
'Being able to launch out here [in the UK] is big because I have a huge audience here that hasn't been able to participate with us. Now they get a chance to see it.'
'Staying tapped in'
Social media has been a huge part of 50 Cent's public persona, with his cheeky digs at long-term rival Sean 'Diddy' Combs' very public legal troubles and other public issues keeping fans engaged. Jackson said 'staying tapped in' to his audience's experience has been vital, adding that this is part of the reason why he's recently been commenting socially on the very public beef between President Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
'It's [about] going into other relatable things that [the audience sees], because they're subject to it too,' he said. 'I've said stuff about Elon and Trump not getting along. You can't miss it. I don't have political aspirations, but you still see and still understand that there's something else that's going on there.'
50 Cent has sold more than 30 million albums around the world, while his Power drama series universe at Starz has been expanding as fast as Ghost's criminal empire, with Deadline revealing last week that two new spin-offs are in the works. The latest, which is currently untitled, comes from Gary Lennon (Power Book IV: Force) and Kendra Chapman (Power Book IV: Force), with Lennon also serving as showrunner. A writers room for the project, also known as Power: Legacy, will open soon.
There were rumors one of the Power spin-offs could be set in the UK's capital, but Jackson has just had Fightland – a boxing drama series set in London – greenlit at Starz, which spun out of Lionsgate last year. Jackson is exec-producing through G-Unit Film & Television. The plot will follow a disgraced, formerly incarcerated boxing champion who returns to London to seek vengeance against the crime family he thinks betrayed him.
Jackson has also pushed into true crime through the likes of Peacock's The Gilgo Beach Killer: House of Secrets, which launched last week, and an upcoming Netflix doc about Combs that will address the recent charges facing the music mogul, including sex trafficking and racketeering, along with multiple allegations of sexual assault and violent abusive behavior.
Expect more on that front, with Jackson planning to expand the number of projects he exec-produces. He noted how he had learned to produce and create in different genres and mediums to keep himself fresh.
'It's amazing, because I met the audience as '50 Cent,' the entertainer, the rapper,' he said. 'Then when they see you consistently have success on a whole other genre, they go, 'wow,' because it's not like everybody's pivoting well. A lot of people stay in that same space. They're just known for that one thing that they've done great, and it's just that, the whole way. But I can't escape my passion for film and television, it just came through music first.'
Jackson is repped by IAG, attorney Steve Savva and AKR Public Relations.
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