Charter Communications and the National Action Network said Monday that the Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund has agreed to make a low-interest loan to Carver Bancorp, Inc. for $1.5 million to help minority and women-owned businesses.

Carver Bancorp is the holding company for Carver Federal Savings Bank, the largest publicly traded African and Caribbean-American managed bank in the United States. The investment represents the first stage of Charter’s previously announced commitment to invest $3 million directly in Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) such as Carver, in partnership with NAN. In addition, Charter said it is making a $1 million long-term deposit in Carver as part of its pledge to support Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs). The $1.5 million in additional liquidity and the $1 million long-term deposit will enable Carver to increase its low-interest loan production to Minority- and Women-Owned Business Entrepreneurs (MWBEs).

“NAN’s partnership with Charter Communications to invest significant dollars in the Black community couldn’t come at a better time and will help ease the economic hits Black businesses have taken in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said NAN founder and president, Reverend Al Sharpton in a press release. “I’m especially proud to launch this on the day we honor Dr. King because his fight for racial equality included pushing for an economy that fostered financial growth and empowerment for Black people. This investment and the vital low-interest small-business loans it will fund will continue NAN’s work to achieve economic equality and support Black businesses and Black entrepreneurs.”

The Spectrum Community Loan Fund was formed in February 2020 to help businesses in financially underserved communities within its 41-state footprint. So far it has invested about $16 million in low-interest loans across the country. 

“Charter is an important part of the communities we serve and we are invested in their success across our footprint,” chairman and CEO Tom Rutledge said in a press release. “These investments in Carver, our continued partnership with Reverend Sharpton and NAN, and the $16 million being invested by the Spectrum Community Investment Loan Fund across the country, are making low-interest loans available to help strengthen diverse-owned small businesses and provide a lasting economic impact vital to the continued development and growth of these financially underserved communities.”

In addition to the $3 million being invested in CDFIs in partnership with NAN, the Loan Fund has previously announced $1 million CDFI investments in Pursuit Community Finance in New York, PeopleFund in Texas, the Economic and Community Development Institute (ECDI) in Ohio, Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp (WWBIC), the National Asian American Coalition in California,  and Justine PETERSEN in Missouri, and committed $3 million to the National Urban Leagues’ Urban Empowerment Fund (UEF). Charter also provides each CDFI with a grant to fund technical assistance programs and professional training for small businesses to help establish sound business practices necessary for long-term growth.

“We are very pleased to establish a partnership with National Action Network, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Charter Communications to support our mutual goal of economic recovery and growth with minority-led small businesses,” Carver Bancorp president and CEO Michael T. Pugh said in a press release.“ A $1.5 million cash commitment through a below-market-rate loan to our holding company and a $1 million long-term deposit at the Bank affords Carver the opportunity to continue supporting Minority and Women-Owned Businesses Entrepreneurs at a time when many businesses have been negatively impacted by the pandemic. On behalf of Carver and the communities we serve, I want to thank the National Action Network, Reverend Al Sharpton, and Charter Communications for this investment in MWBEs.”

Washington — Federal Communications Commission chairman Tom Wheeler stopped short of saying he would press the pause button on his proposal to “unlock” cable set-top boxes, but he has signaled he would work with members of the committee on their issues with the proposal.

And they did have issues.

The key to that exchange — which took place at an FCC oversight hearing on Capitol Hill — was that it was with a Democratic legislator who was asking for the delay, and that lawmaker wasn’t alone.

Last week, the National Urban League joined the Rev. Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s Rainbow PUSH Coalition and others in calling on the FCC to delay any action on the set-top proposal until it had studied the impact of the proposal on diverse programmers.

Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) said at the hearing that she has asked the Congressional Research Service to conduct such a study, and asked Wheeler if he would be willing to hold off until the study was completed.

Wheeler did not commit to a delay, saying only that he would “look forward to working with [Clarke] and the committee” on any issues raised. He did not say he would delay the proceeding, and he said he did not know how long a delay was contemplated.

As expected, committee Republicans hammered Wheeler over the proposal, saying it threatened copyright protections and privacy and was unnecessary and rooted in old technology and thinking. That pushback has now become bipartisan.

Also at the hearing, Rep. G.K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) went so far as to suggest that he joined some stakeholders in concerns that the proposal could mean a new form of digital redlining.

Butterfield said he was concerned about the potential for the “myriad unintended consequences” of the proposal, including the ability to enforce copyright protections for content creators and distributors.

Wheeler continued to assert last week that the proposal doesn’t threaten copyright holders. In providing an example, though, he also provided fodder for cable ISPs and other opponents.

In talking about his proposal and how it would not allow those third parties to ride roughshod over copyright protections, Wheeler said there are “today the equivalent of competitive set-top boxes available in the market,” citing Google’s Chromecast device. Wheeler said that Chromecast does not violate copyright, does not “overlay commercials” and is not out to take over cable TV, calling that notion “malarkey.”

The Future of TV Coalition, which includes cable ISPs and others opposing the set-top proposal, was quick to pick up that comment and run with it, saying it showed there are already alternatives in the market and that makes the set-top proposal unnecessary.

“If the classic Washington definition of a ‘gaffe’ is to accidentally tell the truth, Chairman Wheeler’s comments at today’s hearing are a whopper,” the coalition said in a statement. “He admitted, plainly and clearly, that apppowered devices like Chromecast and Roku offer consumers an alternative to traditional set-top boxes and are readily available in the marketplace. Which begs the question — why is the chairman so desperate to solve a problem that he admits does not exist?

“Chairman Wheeler correctly points out that apps-driven innovation is already allowing consumers to watch video on a wide range of devices — without hurting small and independent programmers, invading privacy, or undermining copyright protections. Why, then, is he proposing a sweeping mandate that explicitly rejects this apps approach and strips TV providers of the technical and contractual tools they currently use to ensure these protections remain in place?”

In response, FCC press secretary Kim Hart told Multichannel News: “What the coalition fails to acknowledge is that 99% of pay TV consumers rent a box from their pay TV provider, paying $231 a year on average. The marketplace is not providing consumers with choice.

“While Roku and Chromecast may provide ‘equivalent’ functions to a set-top box, today these devices and consumers that use them remain bound by the whims of the pay TV industry,” Hart added. “Pay TV providers choose which device to make an app for and independent app providers cannot develop an app to display this video programming. For instance, no MVPD provides an app to Chromecast.”

New York -- Charter Communications Friday pledged to create a chief diversity officer and add more minorities to its board of directors as part of a memorandum of understanding it signed with a dozen civic organizations serving communities of color. 

As part of the MOU, Charter – which is waiting on the FCC to approve its proposed merger with Time Warner Cable and, in some quarters, facing off against skepticism from programming companies – has agreed to appoint an African-American, Asian-American/Pacific-Islander and one Hispanic American to its newly formed board of directors once the merger is complete. Charter also said it will appoint a chief diversity officer to head its diversity and inclusion efforts.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge -- who Friday, in a symbolic ceremony on Dr. Martin Luther King’s actual birth date, signed the MOU along with leaders from the Action Network, the National Urban League, the League of United Latin American Citizens and the National Council Of La Raza -- told Multichannel News that the company is proud of its diversity efforts but pledges to do more the deal is complete, making it the second-biggest U.S. TV provider. 

“While we are committed to [diversity] today, we will be a much bigger, more high-profile kind of organization so we will make a public commitment to diversity with binding obligations on us,” Rutledge said.

The Action Network head the Rev. Al Sharpton praised Rutledge and Charter’s commitment to diversity, but said he and the other organizations will keep a close eye on whether the company keeps its word.

“This is an historic agreement and it will set a precedent as to what must happen in the media world as we continue to see these mergers,” Sharpton told Multichannel News. “We intend to hold them to it.” 

The full list of diversity groups signing the MOU include the National Urban League, National Action Network, National Council of La Raza, League of United Latin American Citizens, National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts, SER-National, Hispanic Federation, Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC), Asian Pacific American Advocates (OCA), Media Action Network for Asian Americans, East West Players, and the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies.

 For more from Rutledge, Sharpton and the event, including video, see Multichannel News and multichannel.com on Tuesday (following the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday).