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Comcast’s $20 Billion Beef With Byron Allen Headed to U.S. Supreme Court

Jun 10, 2019  •  Post A Comment

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case involving a high-stakes dispute between Comcast and Byron Allen’s Entertaiment Studios Network. The Hollywood Reporter’s THR, Esq., reports that Comcast is challenging a ruling allowing Allen’s $20 billion racial discrimination lawsuit to move forward.

“On Monday, the justices of the high court announced that they had accepted for review a case claiming discrimination in contracting against Comcast in alleged violation of section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act,” THR reports. “The $20 billion lawsuit comes from Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios Network, an African American owned programmer upset over the way that cable TV distributors refused to make good offers to license his channels. Comcast — as well as Charter, in a separate case — petitioned for review after Byron Allen’s company survived scrutiny at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.”

THR adds: “In Comcast’s petition, handled by Miguel Estrada at Gibson Dunn, the cable company argued that in order to carry a discrimination suit, plaintiffs must show in pleadings that racial animus was the motivating factor leading to a programming decision. The lower courts chose a lower bar at the initial phase of the case by accepting the suits could move forward so long as plaintiffs demonstrated discriminatory intent as a factor.”

6 Comments

  1. if you watch this guy’s syndicated TV programming … No matter what color he is … its simply low quality, low interest and boring programming … he is using a race card to force carriage of his C-Grade stuff onto channels when there are numerous people out there of different racial backgrounds with much better stuff without the legal threat to force carriage!

    • Agreed and he’s been known to rip off and pay employees poorly.

  2. @Li agreed. Much of the content is low quality and not very compelling viewing. Purchasing decisions for content are based on merit not race. Disgraceful behavior.

  3. Which other crummy channels will they drop in order to keep my cable bill from going up? Or am I, as a consumer who will never watch this programming, going to be forced to pay for it and see my cable bill go up?

    • Why is this about you?

  4. true but insightful story ….

    My associate and I are producers in the TV industry and have been at the NATPE convention many times …we were at Byron’s special event at the show one year when we came up to him and made a nice statement (something like … “congratulations on your recent success” blah, blah) … he literally blew us off when the most insulting look and cold shoulder treatment … WOW …

    – so, having a little fun … we went back an hour later and with his back turned to us and ..
    around many people … we yelled out, “Hey, its Arsenio Hall …” he turned around and gave
    us another dirty look … and we said, “Oops, Sorry!” … that fun moment gave us a sense of
    returning the vibe to a really unfriendly person!

    Arsenio has infinitely more talent …

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