BET Soul (formerly VH1 Soul) is an American pay television network that first launched on August 1, 1998, and is currently owned by Paramount Skydance Corporation's BET Media Group. The channel showcases Caribbean, African, R&B, funk, soul, neo soul, hip hop, jazz and Motown music in various decades from the 1970s to the 2020s.
Soul was originally a commercial-free service, along with sister channel VH1 Smooth, and part of the "MTV Digital Suite" of digital cable channels (which was sold only to cable providers to give them an advantage over satellite services). The first video shown on the channel was "Boogie Wonderland" by Earth, Wind & Fire.[1]
On December 28, 2015 (after MTV Jams' rebrand as BET Jams), VH1 Soul transferred to BET Networks and subsequently rebranded as BET Soul, becoming a sister channel to BET (the network itself removed music videos after the end of 106 & Park the prior year).[2]