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 June 7 in advance of a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Los Angeles on the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger.
Comcast and NBCU announced on Monday that Comcast 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 is scheduled to attend the L.A. hearing, as were representatives of the coalition.
