Group Wants Comcast To Add African-American-Owned Channels As Condition Of NBCU Union

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published

The National Coalition of African-American Owned Media has called for Comcast to add 100% African American-owned channels to its cable lineup and threatened a boycott.
That came in an e-mailed press release Monday in advance of a House Judiciary Committee hearing in L.A. on the proposed deal.
Comcast and NBCU announced on Monday that the cable company would add at least three independent channels with "substantial" minority ownership over the next three years, but they did not define what "substantial" was.
NCAAOM has retained former FCC chairman Kevin Martin, now a partner with Patton Boggs in Washington, to help make its case for strong conditions on the merger.

According to a source, Martin was in attendance at the L.A. hearing, as were representatives of the coalition.

John Eggerton
John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.