We use a new, exact approach in calculating the energy density measured by an observer living on a brane embedded in a charged black-hole spacetime. We find that the bulk Weyl tensor gives rise to nonlinear terms in the energy density and pressure in the FRW equations for the brane. Remarkably, these take exactly the same form as the unconventional terms found in the cosmology of branes embedded in pure AdS, with extra matter living on the brane. Black-hole-driven cosmologies have the benefit that there is no ambiguity in splitting the braneworld energy momentum into tension and additional matter. We propose a new, enlarged relationship between the two descriptions of braneworld cosmology. We also study the exact thermodynamics of the field theory and present a generalized Cardy–Verlinde formula in this set-up.