EthnicMajority

(The Hill) Lawmakers are increasingly divided on whether Comcast’s proposed acquisition of NBC Universal would help or harm the amount of diversity in the media.

The proposed merger has drawn scrutiny from competing media companies and advocacy groups who fear the deal would concentrate too much control over media ownership and distribution in the hands of one firm. Lawmakers, especially those representing districts with significant minority populations, have increasingly found themselves choosing sides in the debate.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) recently added his name to the list of minority lawmakers backing the transaction; in a letter to the Federal Communications Commission dated Oct. 21, Rush argues Comcast’s diversity commitments, including a pledge to add ten minority-owned cable networks, would benefit minority businesses and media representation.

Full story…

(Radio Survivor) Radio One, the nation’s biggest African American oriented radio network, has endorsed the proposed Comcast/NBC Universal merger, now being evaluated by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice.

Its CEO Alfred Liggins III praised Comcast for helping Radio One develop its TV One cable channel.

“The result is that today, as one of the nation’s two major African-American-oriented channels (and the only one owned by African-Americans), our network now reaches more than 50 million homes via cable and satellite and has an audience with enormous race, gender and generational diversity.

In addition to supporting TV One, Comcast has a history of giving diverse voices a megaphone. The company assisted in launching African-American-owned channels like Hip Hop on Demand, the Africa Channel and Crossings and boasts an unrivaled package of 50 Spanish language channels and 150 titles available on-demand. The newly formed company plans to build on this track record in a number of exciting ways.”

Full story…

(OpEd News) On July 13th, citizens from Chicago piled into a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) public hearing on the Comcast-NBC Universal merger to weigh in on the merger and give public comments that would become part of the FCC’s legal record for and against the merger. The legal record would be referred to when making a decision on whether to allow Comcast to merge with NBC or not.

The hearing was held at Thorne Auditorium on Northwestern University’s campus in Chicago. It was possibly the only public hearing the FCC will be holding on this merger in the country.

Each person in attendance had an opportunity to sign up and give two minutes of public testimony. About ninety people signed up. Most were from Chicago but some were from California and other parts of the country.

Those giving public testimony voiced their opinion on a media consolidation move that would put production and distribution into the hands of one company. This would make it a vertical merger. The merger would also mean that Comcast would control one in every five television viewing hours and could potentially push its competitors in the industry to raise prices on cable subscribers by charging them more for NBC content.

Full story…

(OpEd News) Congressman Bobby Rush (D-IL) put together a hearing on the possible merger of Comcast and NBC Universal on July 8th, which was held in Chicago at the Everett Dirksen Federal Building (the same building holding the US v. Blagojevich proceedings). The hearing, held by the Subcommittee on Communications, Technology and the Internet (a subcommittee of the Committee on Energy & Commerce in the House of Representatives), invited “witnesses” to testify and provide insight into who might benefit from the merge if it went through.

The hearing held was not open to public comments. However, Rep. Rush, Rep. Rick Boucher (D-VA), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) and Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN) asked questions of all the invited witnesses after an hour of opening statements.

The witnesses present included: Samuel R. DeSimone, Jr., General Counsel, Earthlink, Inc; Will Griffin, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hip Hop on Demand, Jonathan Jackson, National Spokesman, Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Inc.; Paula Madison, Executive Vice President, Chief Diversity Officer, NBC Universal; Joseph W. Waz, Jr., Senior Vice President, External Affairs and Public Policy Counsel, Comcast Corporation. (Ms. Shirley Franklin, Senior Adviser for the Alliance for Digital Equality was invited but did not attend the hearing).

Full story…

(National Journal) During today’s House Judiciary Committee field hearing in Los Angeles on the proposed Comcast-NBC Universal merger, minority critics accused Comcast, the nation’s largest cable television operator, of doing little to promote media diversity. “We find it unacceptable that none of the 250-plus channels that are offered on the Comcast platform are 100 percent African American-owned and widely distributed on their nationwide platform,” complained Stanley Washington, president and CEO of the National Coalition of African American Owned Media, in prepared remarks. The dearth of black-owned channels is particularly disturbing, he said, because Comcast has “millions of African American subscribers that contribute approximately 40 percent, or $15 billion, of Comcast’s annual revenue.”

Alex Nogales, president and CEO of the National Hispanic Media Coalition, echoed the criticism with this claim: “NBC has a relatively fair record with the diversity initiatives I mentioned earlier. Comcast does not.” His group has battled Comcast for years in an effort to convince it to carry more Spanish-language channels in markets with sizable Hispanic populations.

Full story…

(NNPA) Ownership is a major driver of the Black economy. Knowing this, a group advocating Black media ownership and a former Federal Communications Commission chairman are spearheading a crusade against cable giant Comcast and their proposed merger with NBC/Universal over the cable operator’s lack of African-American owned channels on its national platform.

“When you really start thinking about the areas that are critically important to us as African-Americans, one of the biggest issues is our ability to own, distribute and create our image,” said Stanley Washington, president of the National Coalition of African American Owned Media (NCAAOM).

Although African-Americans make up almost 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, they own far less than one percent of the country’s television channels. Seventy-seven percent of all television channels are White-owned, according to media watchdog group Free Press, who cites public FCC filings. The numbers do not include stations owned by publicly held companies whose boards are typically not very diverse.

Full story…