EthnicMajority

(Chicago Tribune) A federal lawsuit filed Monday in Chicago accused Comcast Corp. of discriminating against the African-American employees of its South Side facility and its own customers by requiring workers to install defective or bug-infested equipment into residents' homes.

Eleven current and former workers in Comcast Corp.'s South Side facility are seeking class action status claiming that since at least 2005, the media company "has engaged in an ongoing pattern of race discrimination against African American employees" at its South Side location, according to the complaint, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois.  

The group includes 10 current employees and one former worker who was fired in 2009. The plaintiffs on average, have worked for Comcast for 15 years, the lawsuit says.

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(Multichannel.com) Comcast's international-content director assured a panel of Hispanic programmers that the top cable operator will bring in new Spanish-language channels, though those channels are not likely to break into the broadest digital tiers.

"Some difficult decisions will be made on the programming slate," Homer Gonzalez III said during a distribution-focused discussion in which he was the only distributor represented.

Responding to a comment by Imagina U.S.'s programming & distribution VP Antonio Briceno that some networks that initially helped populate Hispanic tiers several years ago were still on those tiers, leaving no room for newcomers "new channels and new ideas," Gonzalez said over the last several months he has been studying hundreds of pages of ratings data, independent focus-group reports and other information about Spanish-language channels.

"What I can assure you of is that Comcast's Hispanic programming slate will not be static," Gonzalez said. "Right now I have 60 channels. Hopefully I can put more out there. But in the absence of more bandwidth being out there I have to optimize and keep my package relevant … You should anticipate changes in the Hispanic programming slate to bring more value to those Hispanic subscribers that we try to service."

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(Los Angeles Times) "Undercovers," a glossy drama about married caterers moonlighting as spies, was positioned by NBC as more than just a glittery entry in its fall lineup when it premiered last September. The series featured two black leads — a rarity in prime-time network TV — and was the centerpiece of the network's aggressive campaign touting its commitment to boosting diversity.

NBC trumpeted "Undercovers" as a response to opponents of the network's merger with cable giant Comcast who contended NBC had a historically poor record when it came to placing African Americans in front of and behind the camera. But despite heavy promotion, "Undercovers" never caught on with viewers and was canceled by early November, leaving some observers to speculate that NBC's push for more minority presence would wither.

Network honchos were reassuring. Then-diversity chief Paula Madison maintained in a February radio interview with noted sociologist Michael Eric Dyson that Comcast's NBCUniversal was committed to increasing diversity "in all facets of our business.…Those commitments are in writing, and they are on file with the FCC. There is no likelihood that we would revert. We're not going to put shows on the air that are devoid of diversity."

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(The Wrap) When Comcast was angling to take over NBCU, the cable giant promised prominently to increase the profile of minorities at the company and launch eight independent cable networks, including four under African-American control.

That includes a recent disastrous meeting between Comcast executives and Oprah Winfrey, in which Comcast executives rebuffed the media queen's request for support for her OWN network.

Leading entrepreneur Russell Simmons was rebuffed when he approached NBCU CEO Steve Burke about acquiring the Style network.

The National Urban League, NAACP and Al Sharpton's National Action Network, major civil rights groups, see several trouble spots with their efforts to work with Comcast, TheWrap has learned.

NBCU, for example, has yet to fill the post of chief diversity officer. It has been vacant since Paula Madison, executive vice president, retired in May.

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(Home Media Magazine) Comcast Corp. is expanding the carriage of eight Latino networks.

When Comcast acquired NBC Universal, one of the commitments made was to expand the distribution of at least three networks that are owned or controlled by Latinos or target the Latino community by at least 10 million digital basic subscribers. Comcast will surpass that goal by 40% by adding about 14 million subscribers to eight Latino networks.

The eight networks that have expanded carriage on Comcast systems are Azteca America, Galavision, HITN, LATV, mun2, Telefutura, Telemundo and Univision.

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(Reuters) Comcast Corp, the cable and entertainment company, is making a major push into Spanish-language TV with plans to roll out a website featuring hundreds of shows and movies for Hispanic audiences.

Comcast’s plans allow its digital subscribers — wherever they are — to log into a website where they can pick from more than 500 Hispanic movies and shows from partners including Univision, Cine Mexicano, Gran Cine, Caracol TV, Discovery Familia.

At stake is a rapidly growing segment of the TV audience that, for the largest U.S. cable company, represents a critical subscriber base in places such as Chicago, Houston, South Florida and California, said Marcien Jenckes, general manager of Comcast Video Services.

“We’re fully committed to the Hispanic market,” he said in an interview. “This is almost a doubling down on top of a series of investments that have taken place over the years.”

The idea of tapping into the Spanish-language market is hardly a novel idea, with media companies aware that the Hispanic community is among the largest audience groups in the United States.

But the Hispanic audience is even more important these days, with cable and broadcast television feeling the pressure of audience fragmentation. Spanish-language Univision, with its prime-time roster of soap operas, often draws nearly as many young viewers as broadcast networks ABC, CBS, Fox and Comcast-controlled NBC — and sometimes more.

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(Huffington Post) When Comcast first proposed its joint venture with NBC Universal in October 2009, skeptics correctly asked, “What’s in it for African Americans and other underserved communities?” We wanted to ensure that the Federal Communications Commission didn’t rubber stamp a corporate giveaway that didn’t deliver real benefits to the public.

I hope these critics will now take a hard look at what was achieved for African Americans as part of the Comcast-NBCU review process at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Any fair review will find a number of positive advances, particularly in the areas of broadband adoption and minority media ownership, which are significant enough that I felt compelled to offer my strong support.

Broadband Development and Adoption

As access to broadband has become increasingly essential to educational and employment opportunities, African Americans and members of other underserved communities have lagged behind in broadband deployment and adoption. Leaving these communities out of the broadband revolution is unacceptable.

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(Daily Caller) The pending merger between NBC Universal and Comcast appears to have received Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski’s support because of the companies’ recent promises to the NAACP, Al Sharpton’s National Action Network, the National Urban League and several Hispanic and Asian civil rights organizations. The two media giants promised more “diversity” in new and existing programming, and in all levels of the company and they promised more minority characters in existing television programs and more new programs targeted at the specific racial minorities.

Comcast and NBC Universal promised black leaders four new channels “in which African Americans have a majority or substantial ownership interest,” two of which would be created within two years of the merger. Comcast also promised the black leaders $20 million within six months of the merger closing for a program to expand opportunities for “minority entrepreneurs.”

The media giants also agreed to allow black leaders to have influence over NBC’s news programming.

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(Philadelphia Inquirer) Seeking to neutralize political opposition to its proposed merger with NBC Universal Inc., Comcast Corp. says it will add four cable networks owned, or partly owned, by African Americans over the next eight years, as well as a new English-language channel aimed at Asian Americans.

Those provisions are part of separate agreements Comcast executives signed with civil rights groups.

The African American agreement will be filed Friday with the Federal Communications Commission, Comcast said, and the Asian American agreement was filed earlier in the week. Both call for Comcast to boost diversity in its corporate management and entertainment content and to establish councils to review diversity projects.

“We had been working with NBC for a decade, but Comcast did not have much of a track record with the Asian American community,” Karen Narasaki, president of the Asian American Justice Center in Washington, said Thursday.

One criterion the FCC will evaluate in considering the “public benefit” of the Comcast-NBC Universal deal is the diversity of voices in media that will result from the cable and entertainment giants’ merger.

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(AFP) US cable giant Comcast pledged Wednesday to step up programming geared toward Asian Americans, addressing concerns in the community that its growing size has not been reflected on television.

Comcast and NBC Universal, which it is seeking to acquire, signed an agreement with Asian American groups pledging to expand selections and to invest at least one million dollars over three years for new programming.

The new offerings will include “Cinema Asian America,” which aims eventually to offer films around the clock to 18 million viewers.

Susan Jin Davis, a vice president at Comcast Cable, said the commitments “position us to better compete in an increasingly diverse business environment.”

“This is not just about getting good films to our Asian American viewers; it’s about offering good films that all Americans should have the chance to see,” she said.

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