Special Report: Byron Allen And Comcast Reach Settlement
Byron Allen - Thegrio
Byron Allen, the Black entrepreneur and media mogul, ended his legal battle with Comcast Corporation, the nation’s largest cable company, over alleged racism after five years. Allen is the founder, chairman and CEO of the Entertainment Studios, based in Los Angeles. In 2015, he filed a lawsuit against Comcast claiming that their denial of including his TV channels in its cable bundle was based on his race. The allegations have been denied by Comcast.
On June 10, the litigation was withdrawn in a joint stipulation signed by Allen’s attorney, Louis R. “Skip” Miller of Miller Barondess, and Comcast’s counsel, Miguel Estrada of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
The new settlement, announced on June 11, 2020, gained Entertainment Studios’ cable channels—Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV and JusticeCentral.TV—spots on Comcast’s Xfinity cable TV package, including video-on-demand and TV everywhere rights. It is also agreed upon to extend distribution deal of Allen’s the Weather Channel and 14 broadcast television stations.
The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
“We’re excited to begin a new phase of partnership with Comcast and Xfinity, including the distribution of our cable channels for the first time on Xfinity platforms,” said Allen in a statement.
In 2015, after Comcast and Charter Communications turned down Allen’s channels from being part of their programming, Allen filed a lawsuit contending that the deal had been cancelled in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which gives “all persons… the same right… to make and enforce contracts… as is enjoyed by white citizens,” seeking $20 billion in damages. Before the case was dismissed, the justices ruled that to prevail, “a plaintiff must initially plead and ultimately prove that, but for race, it would not have suffered the loss of a legally protected right.” On November 2018, The United States Courts of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the case was “improperly dismissed” by the District Court and cleared the way for the suit to the U.S. Supreme Court. This decision was viewed as putting new potential limits on racial bias lawsuits.
Comcast has defended its record on diversity and disproved Mr. Allen’s claims of discrimination, arguing the networks he wanted to distribute are not “interesting enough for its lineup or aren’t distinct from current offerings.” The company said Allen demanded carriage for all of the networks in high definition for an unreasonable price. “We feel he resorted to frivolous litigation and name-calling instead of business negotiations,” Sena Fitzmaurice, a Comcast spokeswoman, said, “We think he’s hijacking civil rights laws in an attempt to leverage personal financial gain.”
Allen’s argument focused on an agreement between Comcast and Black leaders and organizations in 2010 in pursue of purchasing NBCUniversal. Comcast agreed to launch several channels backed by minorities, including the Revolt channel, owned by Sean Combs, better known as Diddy, and Aspire channel, led by Magic Johnson, the former basketball star and entrepreneur. Allen also argued the organizations that accepted donations from Comcast, including the National Urban League, Al Sharpton’s National Action Network and N.A.A.C.P, have been used as tokenized investment to justify blocking Black entrepreneurs like him from leadership positions at Comcast.
Allen made his first TV appearance on “The Tonight Show” when he was 18, following a career in the Los Angeles comedy scene. He hosted NBC’s “Real People” before founding Entertainment Studios in 1993. The company has grown to be a small empire, acquiring The Weather Channel from NBC and Fox Sports News.
During the federal review in 2010 of taking over NBCUniversal, Comcast faced criticism for the lack of diversity efforts. An agreement between the federal government and the company in 2011 included launching numbers of channels backed by minorities. As of now, weeks into the national protest against the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, creatives are speaking up about how racism manifests in the entertainment industry. Many media companies have openly supported the Black Lives Matter protests, including Comcast. On June 8, the company pledged $100 million to fight injustice and inequality towards the Black and other communities. The pledge comprise $75 million in cash and $25 worth of advertising inventory over the nest three years.