Merger Critics: Comcast Has Shoddy Record on Media Diversity
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.
Aiming to deflate the criticism, Paula Madison, executive VP of diversity at NBCU, revealed in written testimony that if federal regulators approve the transaction, the new company would take several steps to promote diversity. This would include the
addition of three networks "substantially" owned by minorities and the creation of four "advisory councils" to guide the company's diversity initiatives, she wrote. Some witnesses came to Comcast's defense, including William Jenkins, chairman and CEO of Hip Hop On Demand, who described the company as very supportive of his entrepreneurial efforts, and those of other blacks seeking to launch channels, and as having a solid record of adding minorities to its management ranks.
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