Byron Allen and his company Entertainment Studios Networks has reached a settlement agreement in his case against media giant Comcast. The two companies have made a content carriage arrangement that will amend and extend the terms for Allen’s The Weather Channel and 14 other broadcast television stations, according to a statement released by Entertainment Studios.
The arrangement includes a deal for Comcast to distribute JusticeCentral.TV, Comedy.TV and Recipe.TV via VOD and Comcast’s set-top box service Xfinity X1.
“We’re excited to begin a new phase of partnership with Comcast and Xfinity, including the distribution of our cable channels for the first time on Xfinity platforms,” said Allen, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Entertainment Studios.
As a result of the settlement, Allen has withdrawn his lawsuit against Comcast. Details about the financial terms of the carriage deal was not disclosed.
As we reported, Byron Allen filed a $20 billion lawsuit against Comcast in 2015 for allegedly refusing to carry channels from Entertainment Studios on the grounds of racial discrimination.
Allen’s attorneys cited a violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, an act that declared under section 1981 that “all citizens have the right to make and enforce contracts, to sue, be parties and give evidence, to inherit, purchase, lease, sell, hold and convey real and personal property, to full and equal benefit of all laws and proceedings, as is enjoyed by white citizens.”
After several rejections, the case made it to the Supreme Court. In March, the Supreme Court ruled that Allen and Entertainment Studios carried the burden of proving that discrimination was the sole cause or just a motivating factor for Comcast’s decision to not work with Entertainment Studios.
The settlement comes as Americans nationwide enforce a call to action to end systemic racism and inequality, sparked by the unlawful killing of George Floyd.
While the settlement is a win for Byron Allen, many black people in the entertainment industry have yet to see if the victory will benefit the community as a whole.
Some people, such as social commentators Roland Martin and Boyce Watkins, are demanding that Allen and Comcast serve to hire more black people in top-level positions amid the settlement and recent protests. Time will reveal if Comcast’s move is genuinely a change in the tide or just performative activism.
