Charter Communications’s efforts at promoting diversity and inclusion are led by its SVP and chief diversity officer, Rhonda Crichlow. By supporting an increasingly diverse workforce and by targeting investments in local businesses and communities within its service footprint, Charter hopes to create a more inclusive environment that better serves both its employees and customers of color.

Crichlow spoke with B+C senior content producer R. Thomas Umstead about
Charter’s diversity efforts at the March 16 CultureX Conversations conference. Their full discussion, along with other content from the event, can be viewed on-demand by registering at the event website, culturexevents.com. Here are highlights of the conversation. 

B+C: Why are diversity and inclusion so important to Charter Communications at this time?

Rhonda Crichlow: I think it’s really important to us because we feel that our customers really deserve the best products and services that we can afford. Our philosophy around diversity and inclusion really stems from our focus on our business. We really try to develop a strategy and an approach that is designed to enable stronger business success and business performance. We recognize that, as an organization, we have the benefit of serving a fairly large footprint in the U.S. We operate out of 41 states, with 96,000 employees and roughly 31 million residential and business customers. We also recognize, frankly, that all of those customers have very unique perspectives, needs and desires and the products and services that they receive.

B+C: At this point is, Charter satisfied with where the company is regarding diversity and inclusion efforts, and if not, how do you get to that point? 

RC: I would say we are satisfied with the progress that we’ve made to date, meaning that we have been able to accomplish a lot since introducing our strategy almost three years ago. We’ve seen significant progress in terms of our ability to engage with diverse suppliers;  we’ve introduced a number of new initiatives internally to continue to diversify our workforce externally to support communities across our footprint. Are we happy with our progress to date? Yes. Are we satisfied? No. I think we recognize that as an organization, we have more that we can and should do. We’re very proud of the fact that 48% of our workforce, for example, represents people of color. What we’d really like to do is continue to push forward with ensuring that level of diversity is also represented at every management level within our organization and continue to grow the diversity and inclusiveness of our leadership teams within the organization. 

B+C: What are you doing specifically to allow your employees to be part of the inclusion effort? 

RC: We have a number of programs that we’ve introduced over the course of the last few years, very similar to the way many other companies approach diversity and inclusion. We have network groups, which we refer to as business resource groups, [that] are open to employees of all backgrounds and experiences, irrespective of whether they have the affinity of the group. We also launched a speaker series — Charter’s version of a TED Talk, called Charter Inclusion Talks — where, to celebrate cultural and identity months, we will either invite external speakers in or tap into our employees to talk about some aspect of diversity and inclusion and or provide career advice for employees who attend those sessions. 

B+C: Did the events of last year and the racial reckoning that the country experienced affect some of the things that you’re looking to do going forward? 

RC: I would say it absolutely did. I think, writ large, one of the benefits of the experience that we had over the course of the last year is I do feel that it has raised a level of awareness outside of communities of color, of some of the very real and significant challenges that people still face in our country. I think there is also a recognition that people aren't able to necessarily divorce their experience and how they perceive their external environment from the way that they come into the office. So I think it’s required all of us in the diversity and inclusion space — and frankly leaders across all companies — to really think about what is it that we need to do to ensure that we’re creating inclusive and equitable workplaces for all employees, and what is it that we could do to continue to help people to understand that unique backgrounds and experiences of those employees.

We have a curriculum that we have been working on that we decided to make some tweaks to in light of what took place last year to make sure that we felt the content was very relevant to help our leaders and managers engage across lines of difference. We introduced a really interesting philanthropic initiative called the Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund. Last year, we introduced that program about a month before the pandemic hit in February, and we started with a $10 million commitment designed to work with community development [and] financial institutions to provide loans and other resources to businesses and underserved communities, which we now recognize by virtue of the pandemic and some of the social unrest have been disproportionately impacted by the events of last year. 

I’m really proud to say this since we started that program, we’ve actually more than doubled the investment. We created a very unique partnership with the National Urban League and the National Action Network where $10 million of those funds will be invested specifically in programs and businesses in Black and Brown communities to really help revive those communities across our footprint.

B+C: Is upper management invested, and how are they participating in some of the things you’re working on? 

RC: I would say they’re incredibly invested. What I’m very pleased about is that our executive leadership team has been incredibly supportive and engaged since I joined the organization. I think they manifest their commitment to diversity and inclusion in a number of different ways. One, we do have an internal council that we call our executive steering committee for diversity and inclusion. It consists of our executive vice presidents, our head of communications, myself, inclusive of our CEO and president. We meet on a quarterly basis where we review our progress against diversity and inclusion. Our CEO is a regular presence at those meetings. We present annually to our board of directors. 

This year, we are really excited because we have started to really try to more deeply embed our strategy, particularly around our talent and inclusion objectives. We’re working hand in hand with every executive VP and their leadership teams on diversity action plans that they have created, which allow them to really look directly at their workforces, understand where they have areas of opportunity, understand where they have opportunities to perhaps facilitate a more inclusive work culture within their organizations. We’re working on developing specific plans with them and implementing those plans this year. 

Entertainment Studios/Allen Media Group CEO Byron Allen says the entertainment industry has to become economic partners with Black-owned media, and he’s willing to do what it takes to make it happen.  

Allen, who served as the keynote speaker Tuesday at the Multichannel News CultureX Conversations conference, said he’s not happy with advertisers like General Motors whom he claims do not do enough business with Black-owned media companies including his own media conglomerate, which features a suite of cable networks including The Weather Channel and 16 “Big Four” broadcast affiliated stations in 12 markets. 

Read also: Cover Story: Byron Allen Wants to Save the World 

“I’ve already declared that I’m going to sue Coca-Cola and McDonald’s because they don’t do business with Black-owned media,” he said. “What I’ve said is we’re not going to fix this by talking about it -- we’re not going to fix this by having conversations -- we’re going to fix it  through action. I’ve made it very clear … If you have an ad budget, make sure a minimum of 2% of your ad budget should go to Black-owned media, because that will create opportunities, inclusion and jobs -- even foster creativity. It’ll make a stronger business for all of us and a better industry, community and country.”

The potential legal action against advertisers is similar to lawsuits totaling $40 billion that Allen filed against Comcast and Charter in 2015 for alleged racial discrimination after they refused to carry Allen’s suite of cable channels. While those lawsuits have since been settled, Allen said there’s still work to be done. 

“I wanted to say in a very loud and clear way that we must have economic inclusion for Black-owned media,” he said. “We can’t spend as an industry $70 billion dollars licensing cable networks and none of it goes to Black-owned media. We have a great relationship now with all of the MVPD’s, but it was a conversation that needed to be had, and I’m glad we had it.”

Allen’s advocacy for economic inclusion for Black media was born from his own fight to be successful despite racial obstacles he says he experienced throughout his life, from his early childhood days growing up in Detroit in the 1960s through his move to Los Angeles with his mother in the 1970s, which served as his introduction to the entertainment business. 

While his mother worked at NBC as an intern as she attended UCLA Film School, Allen said he began to see the opportunities for himself in the entertainment industry, particularly after sitting in the shadows watching the production of such shows as The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, Sanford and Son and Chico and the Man.

Allen began performing stand-up comedy at 14 and wrote for comedians such as Jimmy Walker, but said he soon realized the economic playing field was not level for everyone.  

“I found along the way that there were challenges. There were folks who felt like I should be paid a certain amount and that I should not be paid what my white counterparts were being paid … so I decided to learn the business side of show,” he said. 

Allen also spoke of another pivotal point in his career -- his friendship with legendary TV syndicator Roger King. After struggling to get stations to pick up his syndicated shows because he was a person of color, Allen said that King used his influence to get stations to do business with him. 

“I never had a problem having anyone return my phone calls again because of that -- you couldn’t be in business if Roger King didn’t allow you to be in business with his unbelievable  shows,” he said. “But it was unfortunate that he had to kick the door open, and then even after I started selling shows I realized there were a number of other issues. There was a big problem with racism in our industry and folks not leaning in and understanding how bad it is.” 

In particular Allen said his sales representatives experienced the industry’s bigotry first hand when negotiating with potential clients who were told that because Allen was Black, they would not do business with them. Despite the blatant racism, Allen encouraged his salespeople to continue to knock on those doors, just as he did when he started selling his shows.  

“I said to them that that’s not an excuse, that’s an obstacle,” he said. “You are going to have to go back and keep selling, and figure out a way to get around it. That resistance, that racism, is a part of my success.” 

Now Allen says he wants to make sure that his message of economic inclusion reaches the industry’s top executives so that others can succeed within the industry. “This isn’t about being tolerated -- this is about being partners,” he said. “You do that from the top -- that’s what the real leaders have to do from the top. You should know the Byron Allens, and all the Byron Allens in this beautiful country of ours, and how you can engage them, support them, nurture them.”  

He added, “I should not have endured or experienced what I have experienced simply because I’m Black. We have to be vigilant to make sure that we understand that that’s not who we are, and we are better than that. We’re going to do a lot more to make sure no one ever has this experience again.” 

Byron Allen understands the power of multiplication. In the current world of streaming, subscription video-on-demand and direct-to-consumer offerings, multiplication is everything. When you charge tens of million people even just a few dollars a month, that math adds up quickly.

Allen made his money in the early days of syndication, sitting at his dining-room table, making phone call after phone call and getting on planes most days of every month. But after years of sheer hustle, with Entertainment Studios’ syndicated shows adding up their ratings in every market in America, the money started flowing. 

In the past five years, Allen has metamorphosed from a peddler of syndicated shows to a media mogul after surprising the world with his $300 million acquisition of The Weather Channel in 2018, and then following that up by purchasing TV stations (notably including ABC affiliate KITV in Honolulu, one of 16 Allen-owned Big Four affiliated stations in 12 markets) and aggressively going after legacy station groups such as Tribune Media and Tegna. Looking ahead, Allen sees only expansion, with plans to spend at least $10 billion to acquire more Big Four network TV affiliates and to invest billions in his nascent streaming business and reach a global audience. 

Beyond business, Allen has socio-economic issues on his mind — including climate change, racial injustice and economic inclusion — and he’s working hard to make an impact in those areas as well.

MCN contributor Paige Albiniak spoke with Allen, who is the keynote speaker at Future’s CultureX Conversations virtual event on Tuesday, March 16. 

MCN: You sued cable giants Comcast and Charter in February 2015 for a total of $40 billion, with you alleging that their decisions to not carry your cable networks amounted to racial discrimination. Those lawsuits were ultimately settled, but did you feel that they achieved their ends?

BA: I can’t speak to those lawsuits anymore because they’ve been settled. But when I filed my lawsuits against the cable industry, it was really to start the process of creating economic inclusion.

Now, we’re making sure that Madison Avenue does its part. I have found Madison Avenue, quite frankly, to be very racist in its behavior and in its lack of commitment to equity inclusion as it relates to Black-owned media. Black-owned media pretty much doesn’t exist. That’s 110% because of the institutionalized racism on Madison Avenue and among Madison Avenue’s clients. 

What we’ve said to Madison Avenue is that Black-owned media is completely extinct. Right now, I’m the only African-American in America in 2021 that owns a Big Four network affiliate. As a country, and as an industry, that is not a statement that should be accurate in 2021. I’m the first African-American to buy a mainstream cable network in America. Once again, as a country, we shouldn’t be proud of that. We shouldn’t be saying that in 2021.

A lot of that is because Madison Avenue hasn’t leaned in. What I’ve asked Madison Avenue today to do is, I’ve said, look, as we represent 14% of this nation, we have every right to ask for 14% of your budget, which is economic parity. And we’re not asking for economic parity, we’re asking for economic inclusion. We’re asking for a mere 2%, a minimum, and I do emphasize the word minimum, of 2%, to go to Black-owned media, not Black-targeted, but Black-owned. That’s a big difference. That creates a real unique point of view, creating diversity and inclusion while improving democracy. 

Coca-Cola and McDonald’s aren’t doing business with me. Spark Ad Agency isn’t doing business with me. The litigators have already sent the letters out, letting them know that we’re preparing to sue them for billions of dollars. When Coca-Cola and McDonald’s aren’t doing business with me, then there’s no chance that Black-owned media will ever exist. So, in the same way I sued the cable industry for $40 billion, I will now start to sue Madison Avenue and their clients for $100-plus billion. Because what they’re doing is egregious. And when you think about the amount of money that they pull out of the Black community while not doing business with the Black community, it’s economic genocide, is really what it is. It’s economic genocide. 

MCN: What else do you think corporate America needs to do to promote diversity and inclusion? 

BA: What I would say to white corporate America is you don’t need to have a chief diversity officer. More importantly you need to — you, the chairman, the chairwoman, the leader — you need to become the chief diversity investment officer. Make sure you’re investing in people who don’t look like you and fostering greater diversity. Make sure that you are investing in women and Asian people and Hispanic people and gay people and African-American people. You need to be the leader of that.

MCN: What has the pandemic meant for Allen Media Group and Entertainment Studios? 

BA: The growth because of the pandemic has been what we would call meaningful. As people went into lockdown, they went home, and national and local news became very valuable. And that happens to be the business we’re in. So we’ve got, obviously, local news. National news has been very key in the battle against COVID-19, but also as we deal with climate change. 

Our cable networks are the fastest-growing cable networks in terms of distribution, simply because we didn’t have very much distribution to begin with. So we’ve been able to grow our distribution to where it’s something that advertisers are leaning in on. We’ve gotten a number of our networks into 40-, 50-plus-million homes, which, outside of The Weather Channel, is key. 

Our syndicated shows have been growing, and because a number of the studios have abandoned first-run syndication, because they are taking their content and putting it on their streaming platforms, we’ve been able to really help step in and fill that void for stations.

And our streaming has grown really in a significant way because we have Local Now. Local Now is a really unique streaming platform because it uses unique proprietary software and artificial intelligence to deliver local news, weather, sports and traffic in real time, geo-fenced to your ZIP code. And that is a one-in-a-kind streaming service; no one else is able to provide that level of technology. It’s really something that has done extremely well for us. We have seen as much as 60% growth month over month.

When I bought Local Now, it came inside The Weather Channel, so I got Local Now for free. Within 18 months of buying Local Now, Altice bought Cheddar for what we believe to be a couple hundred million. Comcast bought Xumo for what we believe to be a couple hundred million. Viacom bought Pluto for $340 million and Fox bought Tubi for $440 million. 

So we now have four comps that say Local Now is worth quite a bit of capital. When the insurrection happened at the nation’s capital, our traffic shot up significantly because people were able to go to Local Now and watch it in real time. You need to have an app like that that responds to the moment. 

When I bought it, it didn’t have movies, TV shows, documentaries and channels. We now have all of that. I’ve spent the last three years building it out, evolving it. And we have some wonderful channels there. Johnny Carson has a channel there. Bloomberg has a channel, Kevin Hart, America’s Funniest Home Videos all have channels there. People magazine has an amazing channel there. We’ve replicated the cable ecosystem, which is costing $150 to $250 a month per subscriber, and it’s free. 

MCN: What does 60% month-over-month growth look like in terms of users? 

BA: The last report I got was we had about 5.8 million monthly active users, and that’s with little or no promotion. Now we’re going to start really promoting it. 

MCN: Even though we just talked about Local Now, what you really bought was The Weather Channel. We just had this huge weather event across the country, resulting in an electric-grid meltdown in Texas. What do events like that mean for The Weather Channel? 

BA: Well, you know, it all goes up in a significant way, because unfortunately we are dealing with global warming and climate change. Global warming is very real. Climate change is very real. And it’s the greatest threat to human beings on planet Earth. 

When I first bought The Weather Channel, the network was avoiding speaking about climate change because half the people didn’t believe in it, and the other half did, and they didn’t want to offend anybody.

I called all the scientists into a room and I said, “Show of hands, please tell us if we’re in trouble, if climate change is real and a threat to human beings.” Without exception, every scientist in that room raised their hand. So I decided to go with the scientists. And I said, look, we’re not going to be Switzerland here. We’re not going to pretend like this isn’t happening. And we’re not going to worry about offending people simply because we’re telling the truth. 

One of the first specials we did was called Race to Save the Planet. After it aired, the research department did some research on the special and found that 85% of our viewers really appreciated the information and wanted more, because they knew we were being honest.

We are very committed to making sure that we are delivering the best-in-class news because that’s essential to making sure that we have a strong and well-informed society and a true democracy.

MCN: Beyond Local Now, what are your plans for streaming, considering that you own all of these channels and all of this content? 

BA: We’re going to invest very heavily in our streaming platforms. We’re better prepared than anybody to go direct to the consumer, because we own all the premium dot-TVs and have the content to go with them. That’s why we own all the premium dot-TVs, such as cars.tv, comedy. tv, Pets.tv and on and on. We’re better positioned than anybody to go direct to the consumer with over 4 billion worldwide connected devices. 

We own 100% of our content, and most of it was shot without a host. We use voiceover, which means you can use artificial intelligence and put that content in 200 different languages.

If you look at broadcast TV in the ’60s, ’70s, it was broad. And then in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s, it became focused, and that’s when you got MTV and BET and VH1 and Lifetime and Nickelodeon and CNBC or whatever. Like then, I believe streaming is going to become focused pretty quickly. And people are going to say I have Netflix and Disney Plus and Amazon, but I also want Comedy.tv. I want Sports.tv. I want Cars.tv. 

You’re going to start to see us really invest heavily in our direct-to-consumer streaming content. We’ve been sitting on these URLs for about 15 years waiting for this streaming explosion. 

MCN: Would you take those networks and put them on Local Now? Or would you build a new streaming platform? 

BA: Local Now will be on its own and be an aggregator of everything free. And then some of these services will be subscription video-on-demand streaming direct to the consumer for $4.99 a month.

MCN: You’ve also been saying for several months now that you intend to spend $10 billion acquiring Big Four network affiliates. How is that looking? 

BA: We are 110% committed to investing approximately $10 billion to buy Big Four network affiliates. And we will do that within 24 months, if not this year.

 At the CultureX Conversations virtual event on Tuesday, March 16, Rich Ferraro, the chief communications officer of GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, will engage in a discussion about LGBTQ characters and storylines on television, a topic the organization has been studying for years and honoring at its GLAAD Media Awards since 1990. Ahead of the event, Ferraro and GLAAD shared some topical questions and answers about the subject for Multichannel News. 

MCN: We have seen a shift over the past several years in the number of LGBTQ stories that have been told on TV. Do you think the growth in LGBTQ stories as a whole accurately reflects the diversity of the community? What stories are still underrepresented on TV? 

Rich Ferraro: Over the past several years, we’ve certainly witnessed an overall growth in LGBTQ representation on television, but it’s no secret that many of those stories have centered on white cisgender gay or lesbian experience. Not until recently have we started to see a larger expansion of LGBTQ stories about people of color, as well as stories that spotlight diverse identities within our own community. Shows like Pose, Veneno, Vida, 9-1-1: Lone Star, Love, Victor and many others have paved the way for more diverse stories about LGBTQ people of color to be told. 

A promising finding from this year’s Where We Are on TV report was that racial diversity of LGBTQ characters is up on every platform, which is something GLAAD has been calling on from the industry for years. However, we’re still seeing underrepresentation of many groups within our own community, including bisexual and transgender people, disabled LGBTQ people and people living with HIV. Specifically, this year’s report found that there are only three characters on television who are living with HIV — all appear on FX’s Pose — which is down from nine characters the year before. Earlier this year, GLAAD announced that it is calling on the industry to erase stigma through authentic storytelling by introducing no less than three new regular or recurring LGBTQ characters living with HIV each year.

MCN: How have LGBTQ stories and characters evolved since you started at GLAAD in 2008? 

RF: When I started, it was a major news story when a gay character was introduced and we often worked with publicity teams to prepare crisis communications plans to anti-LGBTQ backlash. Just a year after I started at GLAAD is when Modern Family premiered on ABC. At the time, it was revolutionary for a gay couple to be depicted in such a positive and multi-dimensional way on broadcast television. Each week, Cam and Mitchell’s relationship appeared on TV screens across the country, most likely introducing many Americans to their first gay parents.

Now those crisis communications plans are not only not needed, but LGBTQ characters are the root of extremely celebratory earned media and social buzz. Series like Pop TV’s Schitt’s Creek, which has a pansexual character as a lead and a gay man as an EP, has been sweeping the biggest award shows in Hollywood. Groundbreaking shows like FX’s Pose and HBO Max’s Veneno have made history for trans representation, both on and off screen, and continue to highlight the importance of spotlighting and amplifying trans voices of color.

The GLAAD Media Awards recognize LGBTQ media images that grow acceptance and the first awards I ever took part in had five nominees in Drama and Comedy Series categories, with many of those shows including minor representation. At this year’s Awards, we have 10 nominees in these categories and introduced an Outstanding Children’s Programming category to recognize inclusive stories on shows aimed at young kids, because all families should see themselves reflected on screen. 

The “backlash” now happens when a LGBTQ story is not handled well or when LGBTQ people are kept intentionally invisible. The GLAAD Media Institute consults with networks and content creators on LGBTQ inclusion and we are not hearing if LGBTQ inclusion should happen, but how to do so in responsible, fair, and entertaining ways. 

MCN: The GLAAD Media Awards are coming up on April 8, and you just announced that they will take place virtually for a second year, this time streaming on GLAAD's YouTube and for the first time ever on Hulu. How has the virtual format changed the show, and what can we expect to see this year?

RF: At the GLAAD Media Awards, we work with the world’s biggest notables to send messages of LGBTQ acceptance around the world. Premiering on Hulu will allow these messages, including ones from our host Niecy Nash, to reach an even larger audience. LGBTQ youth are isolated at homes and so many Pride festivals and other LGBTQ safe spaces have been canceled because of the pandemic, so we are excited to bring messages of inspiration to LGBTQ youth. We have 198 nominees this year, more than ever before -- and we use these nominations and awards wins to raise the bar for inclusion. Suddenly if you are a network jockeying for a nomination, you not only need to include LGBTQ people, but to spotlight diverse segments of our community.

MCN: Last year, GLAAD and P&G released the first-ever ‘LGBTQ Inclusion in Advertising & Media’ study, which found that consumers are extremely comfortable with LGBTQ images in media and look favorably on brands who include LGBTQ people in their ads. How does this research shape the focus of GLAAD’s work to improve LGBTQ inclusion with networks and advertisers moving forward?

RF: The findings of this study send a clear and powerful message to brands that including LGBTQ people in ads, TV and films is good for business and good for the world, and should act as a catalyst for greater inclusion across industries. Nearly 70% of non-LGBTQ people who saw us in film, TV or ads said they favored a brand that included us.

In advertising, we know that significant work still needs to be done given the absence of LGBTQ representation. GLAAD will soon begin work with P&G and the Association of National Advertisers’ Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing to develop a set of best-in-class practices and standards for brands and companies to follow when approaching LGBTQ inclusion in advertising, specifically focused on prioritizing impact and ensuring accurate and authentic representation. λ

For more information about the CultureX Conversations event, go to CultureXevents.com.

The entertainment industry is examining its diversity and inclusion efforts as it continues to make inroads in recognizing the business rationale for greater representation on-air, behind the camera and in the C-suites. Future’s CultureX Conversations on Tuesday, March 16, will build on the dialogue through a series of keynotes, fireside chats, panels and awards that celebrate the industry’s inclusion efforts while searching for ways to improve both the mindset and the impact of decision makers to foster a more inclusive industry.

Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios founder, chairman and CEO Byron Allen will serve as opening keynote speaker of the virtual conference, leading a roster of top industry executives, chief diversity officers, on-air talent and showrunners set to discuss the need for more diversity within all aspects of the industry, while revealing the strategies behind building a successful, diverse workforce. The conference is produced in partnership with The Walter Kaitz Foundation.

Stage 13/Warner Bros. Digital Networks senior VP and general manager Diana Mogollón will headline a panel on the impact of diverse casts on programming acquisition and distribution, while WarnerMedia senior VPs of enterprise inclusion Karen Horne and Samata Narra will share some internal research and insights on implementing the inclusion process within a “merging” corporate culture.

Walter Kaitz Foundation executive director Michelle Ray will host a panel featuring diversity officers such as AMC Networks chief diversity, equity and inclusion officer Aisha Thomas-Petit and Ann Carlsen, founder and CEO of executive search firm Carlsen Resources, discussing their experiences and tips for ensuring equitable results in recruitment practices and hiring procedures.

Regarding on-screen diversity, GLAAD chief communications officer Rich Ferraro will release the organization’s latest report on LGBT characters and storylines on TV (see Viewpoint, page 30), while AARP VP of multicultural leadership Yvette Pena will discuss the impact of content targeting the maturing multicultural audience. 

A highlight of the conference is the CultureX Awards, given to individuals, organizations and programs for their outstanding commitment to inspiring cultural inclusion within the television industry. The ceremony is hosted by 2020’s CultureX award recipient, Julio Vaqueiro, the anchor of Noticias Telemundo Edicion Especial. 

This year’s award recipients are: Juanjo Duran, head of entertainment & multicultural, Google; Juan Williams, Fox News political analyst and co-host of Fox News Channel’s The Five; Access Hollywood, the entertainment news program known for its diverse cast and coverage of inclusion issues in the industry, with Scott Evans accepting; and Starz, for diverse casts and storylines in series such as Power, P-Valley and Outlander, plus upcoming series Run The World, Blindspotting, Black Mafia Family, Shining Vale, Serpent Queen and Power Book II: Ghost. Starz’s award will be accepted by president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch.

For more information or to register, go to culturexevents.com. 

Access Hollywood’s commitment to inclusion is evident both in the cast of the entertainment show and the array of stories told on it, as the syndicated staple evolves to better reflect the nation that watches it. 

Senior executive producer Maureen FitzPatrick described a “shifted landscape” within Access Hollywood that began a few years ago, and saw more diverse staffers hired, and more women promoted into management roles. “We needed our staff and our storytellers to reflect the viewers,” she said. “The viewers are diverse.” 

Part of NBCUniversal, Access Hollywood premiered its 25th season in September. Daytime show Access Daily debuted in 2010. For its diverse hosts and coverage, the show is receiving a CultureX Award at the CultureX Conversations virtual event on March 16. 

CultureX Awards: Starz Shows the Power of Diversity | Google’s Juanjo Duran: Leveling the Playing Field for Diverse Programming | Juan Williams Brings an Alternative Voice to Fox News

All staffers are encouraged to pitch stories at the morning meeting, meaning a more varied batch of ideas is floating around each day. Host Scott Evans mentions some 50 people in on the meeting some days, many tossing out pitches. “It’s not just senior show staff,” he said. “A P.A. can pitch a segment. A runner can pitch a segment.”

Access Hollywood offers the latest entertainment news, along with true-crime headlines. While celebs will always be the primary focus, the story lineup made more time for topics such as fashion, hair and makeup, which meant screen time for individuals who are not household names or faces. 

“The audience sees a reflection of themselves,” said FitzPatrick, who joined NBCUniversal in 2018. 

That had Access Hollywood well-positioned when viewers’ attitudes toward entertainment shifted in 2020. After COVID hit, Access Hollywood did lots of stories on those FitzPatrick called “the unsung heroes in our country” — first responders helping America handle a grave crisis. Viewers appreciated hearing about people who don’t top-line films or have hit songs. Just after George Floyd’s death in May, Evans contacted executive producer Mike Marson and said the show had to do something meaningful on the Black struggle in America. Marson’s response, according to Evans, was, “We’re already on it.” 

More CultureX Conversations: ‘CultureX’ to Celebrate Diversity, Inclusion | Byron Allen Wants to Save the World | Charting the Course of TV Representation

In June, Access Hollywood premiered a 30-minute special called “A Celebration of Black Voices.” Offering the viewpoints of a range of Black personalities, from celebrities such as Kerry Washington and Taraji P. Henson, to people behind the scenes in Hollywood, the special also detailed the unrest happening around America.

Evans shared what he saw at protests in Los Angeles. “I was encouraged to speak authentically about what I was experiencing,” he said. “A lot of shows, particularly entertainment shows, wouldn’t use that kind of content.” 

Years back, Evans said a segment on hair would feature blonde and brunette locks. Nowadays, “it’s kinky, wavy, curly and straight,” he said. “It feels honest and authentic.” 

Access Hollywood has also worked hard to better reflect other minority communities, FitzPatrick said, and LGBTQ viewers too. 

The show’s cast reflects America, even if it is a little better-looking. Access Hollywood hosts are Mario Lopez, Kit Hoover and Scott Evans, and the correspondents are Sibley Scoles and Zuri Hall. Lopez, Hoover and Evans host Access Daily. 

“The five of them really like each other,” said FitzPatrick. 

Some 90% of the Access Hollywood staff has been working from home, and countless interviews have been conducted via digital platforms. FitzPatrick mentioned how frequently the program was pre-empted in 2020 due to COVID updates and press conferences. “We hung in there,” she said. “We’re happy that COVID will soon [subside] and we’ll get people back in the studio.” 

Keeping It Positive 

Our nation’s struggles have tweaked what people want to watch. Viewers want more positivity, FitzPatrick said, and information on making their home lives a little brighter, whether it is related to cooking or clothing. “In times of change, we shift our programming to meet the needs of our audience,” she added. 

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s ongoing struggles, depicted in their March 7 interview with Oprah Winfrey, are of great interest to viewers, and the Tokyo Summer Olympics, scheduled to start July 23, are a huge draw, too. “We love celebrating athletes and their backstories and their rise to success,” FitzPatrick said. 

She is optimistic Access Hollywood’s momentum will continue once the world gets back to relative normal. It got started when the show set out to reshape itself years back. 

“The key is knowing who the audience is,” FitzPatrick said. “That’s our country. Those are our viewers.” 

When Starz’s hit series Power concluded its sixth and final season in February 2020, it finished as one of the top-rated series on premium TV and the platform’s most-watched series among African American viewers. 

Power, with its diverse cast, was the network’s most successful series, but it wasn’t Starz’s only inclusive show. The programmer, in fact, overindexes on people of color and women featured in lead roles when compared to the rest of the industry, with such dramas as the Power spinoff Power Book II: Ghost, as well as P-Valley, Outlander, Hightown and American Gods, according to UCLA’s Center for Scholars & Storytellers. 

Other shows formerly on the service — such as Vida, produced by Tanya Saracho and featuring a predominately Latin cast; the LeBron James-produced Survivor’s Remorse; and The Spanish Princess, developed by Emma Frost — offer evidence that Starz is no Johnny-come-lately in its on-screen commitment to diverse images and storylines. 

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Not willing to sit on its diversity laurels, Starz in February announced its intentions to lead the diversity conversation both in front of and behind the camera through its #TakeTheLead campaign, which sets out to create a template for how the industry can achieve its representation goals. The network’s continual commitment to diversity and inclusion has earned Starz the CultureX Corporate Commitment to Inclusion in Television Award. 

“It’s our corporate responsibility to really try to make an impact in society and to improve representation on and off the screen so that the Hollywood world looks more like the world we live in today,” Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch said. “It’s not just a tagline — it’s who we are and what we do everyday. It’s really our single focus in terms of the organization.” 

Sharing Best Practices

Starz plans to launch a series of “Transparency Talks” with various media organizations and featuring thought leaders versed in diversity to discuss best practices toward improving inclusion efforts. The talks will culminate later this year in the Starz Summit, which will showcase the company’s own commitment to creative diversity through offering opportunities to the next generation of voices. 

“We hope that we have great participation from the industry and the public, and really bring great conversation and debate around these topics,” Hirsch said. 

Starz looks to lead by example. A recent report from the Center for Scholars & Storytellers shows just how Starz has executed its vision for greater ethnic and gender representation in all aspects of the company. 

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The report found that, on-air, 63% of series leads for Starz’s original series are people of color, more than 78% above the industry’s average. Further, 57.9% of character leads in its series are women, well above the 45.2% industry average. 

“We have a very specific programming mandate to showcase narratives about women and underrepresented audiences on air,” Hirsch said. “I think it’s really important that if we are going to serve that audience, you need to show that you are authentic to that mission.” 

Behind the camera, nearly 50% of Starz show directors are people of color — 77% more than the industry average — and 43.7% are women. More than half of the network’s showrunners are women, and 47.1% of the executive producers for its shows are people of color, both well above the industry average. 

Behind-the-Scenes Efforts 

The network’s mandate to foster more diversity within its company also extends to the executive offices, Hirsch said. Three quarters of its executive leadership team are women, with 50% of those women people of color. 

He added the numbers are a great starting point, but he hopes to continually improve on them going forward. “It’s a mandate that we use to make all of these decisions in the company,” he said. “I do believe that these numbers will continue to increase as we start to put more shows on the air that fit our mandate.” 

Indeed, already in development for Starz is another Power spinoff, Raising Kanan; the Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson-produced series Black Mafia Family; as well as new drama series Shining Vale from writer Sharon Horgan and starring Courteney Cox; The Serpent Queen, based on the life of French Queen Catherine de Medici; and comedy series Run the World, created by African-American producer Leigh Davenport. 

“I’m very excited about the slate of programming and I’m eager to get into it,” Hirsch said.” 

As an accomplished TV news journalist, radio host, newspaper reporter and author, Fox News on-air host Juan Williams has participated in an industry’s slow evolution toward greater inclusion and acceptance of diverse images and viewpoints over his career of more than five decades. 

Currently co-host of Fox News Channel’s political news program The Five, Williams has offered a unique perspective on breaking news and current events since joining the then-nascent network in 1997. 

Williams, who has authored books about the African-American experience including Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965 and Thurgood Marshall: American Revolutionary, will be honored at the CultureX Conversations event (March 16) for Talent Reflection of Inclusion in Television. 

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In an interview, Williams said he was recently reminded that the industry still has a ways to go in its diversity efforts. In 2020, PBS initially invited Williams to speak as part of a show about that summer’s racial protests following the May death of George Floyd. Before he could respond to the invitation, it was withdrawn, because the producer felt Williams’s Panamanian ancestry excluded him from the African American centered conversation. 

“If someone who has written best-selling books on this very topic, regardless of the person’s birthplace, you would think that’s a source of information and perspective,” Williams said. “Yet here you have a white PBS host turning away from somebody on the basis of their birthplace. It’s just bizarre.” 

Progress Proceeding Slowly 

Williams does feel the media business has become more diverse, with more change on the way. 

“I’m 66 years old now, so I’ve seen a lot of transitions,” he said. “It’s almost like Forrest Gump — he finds himself at various moments in history and these transitions. There’s been a tremendous transition since I started on the print side as an intern at the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin. When we think about race and ethnic diversity in terms of staffing, it’s been an incredible shift.” 

Prior to Fox News, Williams worked for a decade at National Public Radio after working 23 years as a writer for The Washington Post. 

“When I was coming along, if you saw someone like [syndicated news host] Tony Brown, it really stood out, because there was just about no one else,” Williams recalled. “That was true on the local and national news side.” 

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‘Change Is Coming’ 

“Change has come in very small increments, but it is coming,” Williams said. “It’s something that’s been difficult, because America media is a power base, and it's hard for people to welcome newcomers to power and to cede power, and information is power. Part of that information is what the person who is giving you that information is saying, what he looks like and what their perspective on the news is. This is all part of what I call the changing face of America.” 

He agreed with the premise that he, as a person of color and having a more liberal leaning political perspective, has helped expand the Fox News audience. 

“I think there’s no doubt about it, and I have some interesting ways of judging that fact,” Williams said. “I’m a real human being. I go outside, go to church, to the ballgame, pass through the train station, go to the airport and to the grocery store. So people, especially Fox News’s most ardent viewers, come up to me and say ‘I don't agree with you, but I like you.’ This is so interesting. It’s like I am given permission in their mind to come into their home, and I am an alternative point of view that they value. To me this is tremendous because it means I have some value in the overall package that is Fox News. 

“The second part of that is I run into minorities who have a liberal political perspective and maybe don’t watch Fox News often, but what they say is, ‘Thank God you’re there. I’m glad someone is there to challenge people and to raise another point of view.’ 

“The demographics of the country are undergoing a tremendous shift,” Williams observed. “I think now the census has it at about 40% of the American population made up of people of color and heading higher. We've never been there before. If you look at the young people in the country, disproportionately over 50% of people under 18 are people of color, which is a huge audience. 

“So if you look at everything from movies to news to television and music, you see that increasingly the successful organizations are the ones satisfying a more diverse market and population. 

“When we come out of this pandemic phase and start getting open again — especially in the aftermath of what happened last summer — I think now we are compelled in terms of business interests to do a better job of representing different perspectives with this increasingly Fox News diverse demographic.”

Juanjo Duran’s job at Google has evolved from overseeing multicultural content to also taking care of general-market programmers. As head of entertainment & multicultural at Google, Duran is responsible for relationships and growth within Google’s platforms and ecosystems (Android, Chrome, Google Play and especially Google TV, where he focuses much of his attention), partnering with the likes of Peacock, HBO and Discovery. Ironically, he said, that shift was actually important for how multicultural content was seen within the company and beyond. 

“We needed to make sure multicultural content is treated the same way as any other type of content, and the only way to do that was to merge those teams and make sure it is the same priority,” Duran said. “A lot of companies have good intentions and a grasp of what opportunity multicultural content might bring but the reality is that it's always exceeded by general-market priorities. We at Google treat it all the same way.”

A Passionate Technophile

Duran, who is being honored at the upcoming CultureX Conversations event (March 16) for Executive Commitment to Inclusion in Television, had studied business and was always passionate about technology. But he never imagined he’d leave Mexico, work for a company the size of Google or end up in the media, dealing with content. 

He came to America from Mexico in 2004 to work for Televisa, the huge content company, and has lived in Miami, Florida, since then. (Now 45, he is married with two sons.) After Televisa, he spent eight years at YouTube, overseeing content partnerships for the U.S. Hispanic market and then heading the Spanish-Speaking Americas. 

Duran is a super-organized thinker: Ask him a question and he is prepared with a long response that also answers your next three questions. As a “wannabe engineer,” he is also very curious about how things work, although he said he sometimes has to remind himself not to get bogged down in details and to delegate. He said his strong suit is “my ability to connect with people and understand their needs has helped me work with our partners.”

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Jonathan Zepp, head of Media & Entertainment Global Partnerships for Google Platforms & Ecosystems, agreed. He said he has always been impressed with how Duran “artfully leverages his diverse set of skills and personal experiences to build partnerships that enable inclusive and diverse content experiences." 

Those partnerships, Duran said, are about getting the content and “allowing it to flow freely within our ecosystem so we’re connecting the content with the users.” 

The company is also beginning to focus on women-led services and LGBTQ verticals. Emphasizing multicultural content is about doing the right thing, but it is also “a big business opportunity,” he said, adding that every company should have this approach. 

Duran said that in 2020, as society started focusing more on social justice, Google was well situated. While they don’t own content, they are able to choose what to put up front. “We want to educate people and make them think,” he said. “And we want to go deeper so people see that hate speech toward Black folks may be different than hate speech toward Asian-Americans.” 

“We focus on U.S. Hispanic, Black American and Asian-American content,” he said. “We want people to be able to see, for instance, movies aimed at a Black demographic all year, not just when it’s Black History Month.”

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Looking Out for Little Guys 

Duran said his team is bullish on helping smaller services play a role, too. “There’s tons of multicultural content, but sometimes these companies get stuck trying to compete with the big guys,” he said, pointing to companies like Kweli TV, FlixLatino, CanelaTV and BlackOakTV. “We sometimes fund them and we work with them on the back end to showcase and popularize their content.” 

Another crucial factor to Duran’s approach is to make sure services imported from, say, Asian countries, are not only included “but are treated the same way as U.S. services. Pushing them is extremely important for us and adds another layer of interest.” 

“This team has a passion for doing the right thing and giving a voice to everybody,” he said, “but it’s not just this team, it’s all of Google. There is a lot of cross-functional alignment with promoting all these demographics, across departments like merchandising, marketing, public relations and sales.” 

Next up for Duran is a new challenge: taking Google’s brand of multiculturalism global. “We are in the exploration process to learn how to tackle this,” he said. “We understand that multiculturalism doesn’t look the same in the U.K., Brazil and India. But later this year or next year, we’re going to be investing in and delivering on multiculturalism around the world.”

The entertainment industry is examining its diversity and inclusion efforts as it continues to make inroads in recognizing the business rationale for greater representation on-air, behind the camera and in the C-suites. Future’s CultureX Conversations on Tuesday, March 16, will build on the dialogue through a series of keynotes, fireside chats, panels and awards that celebrate the industry’s inclusion efforts while searching for ways to improve both the mindset and the impact of decision makers to foster a more inclusive industry.

Allen Media Group/Entertainment Studios chairman and CEO Byron Allen will serve as opening keynote speaker of the virtual conference, leading a roster of top industry executives, chief diversity officers, on-air talent and showrunners set to discuss the need for more diversity within all aspects of the industry, while revealing the strategies behind building a successful, diverse workforce. The conference is produced in partnership with The Walter Kaitz Foundation.

Warner Bros. Digital Networks SVP and general manager Diana Mogollon will headline a panel on the impact of diverse shows casts on programming acquisition and distribution, while WarnerMedia Inclusion SVPs Karen Horne and Samata Narra share some internal research and insights on implementing the inclusion process within a “merging” corporate culture.

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Walter Kaitz Foundation CEO Michelle Ray will host a panel featuring diversity officers such as AMC Networks chief diversity officer Aisha Thomas-Petit and executive search executive Ann Carlsen of Carlsen Resources discussing their experiences and tips for ensuring equitable results in recruitment practices and hiring procedures.

Regarding on-screen diversity, GLAAD chief communications officer Rich Ferraro will release the organization’s latest report on LGBT characters and storylines on TV, while AARP VP of multicultural marketing Yvette Pena will discuss the impact of content targeting the multicultural maturing audience. 

A highlight of the conference is the CultureX Awards, given to individuals, organizations and programs for their outstanding commitment to inspiring cultural inclusion within the television industry. The ceremony is hosted by 2020’s CultureX award recipient, Julio Vaqueiro, the anchor of Noticias Telemundo Edicion Especial. This year’s award recipients include: Juanjo Duran, Head of Entertainment & Multicultural, Google; Juan Williams, Fox News Political analyst, co-host of Fox News Channel’s The Five; and Starz, for commitment to ensuring diversity and inclusion in the cast and storyline of many of its most popular series including Power, P-Valley and Outlander, plus upcoming series including Run The World, Blindspotting, Black Mafia Family, Shining Vale, Serpent Queen and the sequel to Power, Power Book II: Ghost. The award will be accepted by Starz president and CEO Jeffrey Hirsch.

For more information, or to register, visit the CultureX Conversations website.

CultureX Conversations offers a unique breakthrough conference for television industry and media leaders who are engaged in diversifying their workplace and ensuring that the service and content they provide to customers is inclusive of those who identify by their ethnicity, nationality, language, special needs, or sexual orientation.

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