Comcast, Byron Allen Settle Discrimination Lawsuit

Entertainment Studios Networks and Comcast today announced they have entered into a content carriage arrangement that extends and amends terms for The Weather Channel and 14 broadcast television stations.

The deal also includes distribution of Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV and JusticeCentral.TV on X1 and video on demand and TV everywhere rights for those networks.

Byron Allen

Comcast will also launch the free ad-supported digital app, Local NOW, on the Xfinity X1 and Flex platforms, and Xfinity customers who receive The Weather Channel will have access in the coming months to its weloveweather.tv website and app on an authenticated basis.

"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 Byron Allen, Founder, Chairman and CEO, Entertainment Studios/Allen Media Group.

"We are pleased to have reached this multifaceted agreement that continues our long relationship with The Weather Channel while bringing Xfinity customers additional content.  We look forward to an ongoing partnership," said Bec Heap, Senior Vice President, Video and Entertainment, Comcast Cable.

The companies also announced that pending litigation between the two organizations has been withdrawn.  Additionally, financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Allen had said Comcast racially discriminated against him when it refused to carry his cable-TV channels. Comcast said race had nothing to do with rejecting Allen’s channels, noting that they had low ratings.

The Philadelphia Inquirer reports Allen’s case was closely watched by legal experts and civil rights groups as it made its way to the Supreme Court. Although the high court did not weigh the merits of Allen’s allegations, it ruled in March that he needed to show race was the determining reason the cable company refused to carry his channels for his discrimination case to survive.

Civil rights groups warned the Comcast victory could make it harder for others to bring racial discrimination cases by setting a high bar. The also case drew in business groups and the Trump administration, which filed briefs supporting Comcast, and more than two dozen civil rights groups, including the NAACP, which backed Allen.

The settlement comes days after Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts said Monday that the media company would spend $100 million over the next three years to combat racial injustice and inequality. Responding to the nationwide protests over police brutality against black Americans, Comcast said it plans to give grants to civil rights groups, accelerate efforts to diversify its workforce, and commit funds to small businesses forced to close due to the pandemic, with much of the money going to firms owned by people of color.