Friday, March 29, 2024

Byron Allen Talks $20 Billion Comcast Lawsuit and Al Sharpton (Listen)

byron-allen*Byron Allen  has beef with Comcast and it’s not cheap.

The entertainment mogul via his Entertainment Studios production company has joined the National Association of African-American Owned Media (NAAAOM), in filing a $20 billion discrimination lawsuit against Comcast, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Time Warner Cable and various civil rights groups that include the NAACP and the Urban League

Allen is accusing Comcast of racism in the suit along with claims that Entertainment Studios has been intentionally unable to get distribution on cable systems owned by Comcast and Time Warner. As noted by Shadow and Act, Entertainment Studios owns eight digital channels.

So where does Sharpton fit into this? Well, according to a $10 billion suit against AT&T and DirectTV, Allen alleges that “Comcast paid Sharpton and his National Action Network (NAN) more than $3.8 million in donations and as salary (reportedly $750,000 a year) for the on-screen television-hosting position on MSNBC.”

The suit goes on to acknowledge Allen’s claim that “one hundred percent African-American-owned media has been shut out by Comcast. Of the approximately $11 billion in channel-carriage fees that Comcast pays to license television channels each year, less than $3 million is paid to 100 percent African-American-owned media” and that in addition to Sharpton, the NAACP and the Urban League were paid off by Comcast.

Responding to Allen’s lawsuit, NAN founding member the Rev. Horace L. Sheffield III weighed in on the situation via the following statement:

“As a media professional, activist on the front lines and a founding member of the National Action Network (NAN) an organization that is dedicated to confronting and challenging social injustice everywhere, I am appalled at Mr. Allen’s assertions and his lawsuit. More than any other MSO, Comcast has provided opportunities for diversity and inclusion in its programming and leadership. Rev. Sharpton and I led protests around the country in opposition to the lack of diversity offered by some of the biggest MSO’s including Cablevison, Wide Open West, Charter, etc… We stood together when former Dish Network founder and CEO Charile Ergen released his dogs on us after we sought quality African American programming on his network. Comcast was the only company to outreach to us and work to achieve comparable aim. The outcomes that Rev. Sharpton has bolstered in his quest to provide equal opportunity and variance for African Americans in front of and behind the camera have not been about forwarding his own personal agenda, but more about empowering his community—something that he works to do every day. It is unfortunate that the Mr. Allen and the National Association of African American Owned Media (NAAAOM), a company headed by a former EVP for Entertainment Studios, (a company owned by Byron Allen) have filed this lawsuit. This suit and allegations does a disservice to those of us, including Rev. Sharpton, who have worked tirelessly to create change and REAL opportunity that benefits the majority as opposed to a select few.”

For those wondering why Comcast paid off Sharpton and NAN, Shadow and Act went back in time to 2009. During that year, General Electric, which owned NBC, was looking to get rid of the network, which “wasn’t making the kind of money that it used to.”

Enter Comcast, which ended up purchasing NBC amid concerns about the acquisition stifling competition and pressure from civil rights groups to feature more diversity in the media.

Allen and the NAACOM claim in their suit that Comcast had no interest in bringing more diversity and thereby started making cash payouts to the civil rights groups. In return the groups would voice their support of Comcast and its diversity efforts via letters to the FCC and others.

“Records even show that the NAN received some $155,000 from Comcast, who, in turn, wrote letters to Washington FCC regulators, endorsing the NBC buyout,” Shadow and Act stated, while noting how Comcast gave Sharpton his own news show on MSNBC “as a sort of ‘thank you’” for the FCC approving Comcast’s acquisition of NBC, despite protests from professional black journalist who felt someone with a background in journalism should’ve gotten the show.

“It’s cheaper to give Al Sharpton money, than it is to do business with real African-American owned media,” Allen said in a recent interview. “What Comcast did is, they give Al Sharpton money so he doesn’t call them racist. That is the issue here… (He) is nothing more than a black pawn in a very sophisticated white economic chess game. He’s not even bright enough to know he’s on the chess board, and he’s being used by his white masters at Comcast, specifically David Cohen (executive V.P. of Comcast) and Brian Roberts (chairman and CEO of Comcast).”

For more analysis on Allen’s lawsuit, click here. To hear more from Allen about the lawsuit, among other things, check out his interview over the weekend with Reelblack Radio below:

We Publish News 24/7. Don’t Miss A Story. Click HERE to SUBSCRIBE to Our Newsletter Now!

YOU MAY LIKE

SEARCH

- Advertisement -

TRENDING