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Byron Allen Talks $20 Billion Comcast Lawsuit and Al Sharpton (Listen) NAN Founding Member Responds

Mar 17, 15 by Qwest7 Leave a comment

*Byron Allen has beef with Comcast and its 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 Allens 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 Allens 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. Allens 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 MSOs 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 communitysomething 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 wasnt making the kind of money that it used to.

Read the original here:
Byron Allen Talks $20 Billion Comcast Lawsuit and Al Sharpton (Listen)