Byron Allen’s $10 Billion Charter Communications Lawsuit Gets The Green Light

Comedian and media mogul Byron Allen has officially put Charter Communications
CHTR
on notice, now that Federal District Court Judge George H. Wu has allowed Entertainment Studios’ $10 billion racial bias lawsuit to proceed. Charter Communications cable distribution reaches about 26 million subscribers and they’ve been blocking Allen from getting access to them. As one of the few Black-owned media companies, will Allen have the last laugh with this lawsuit finally putting an end to systemic racism in media practices by carrying his slate of channels?

The Breakdown You Need To Know:

Charter had hoped its ‘Motion to Dismiss’ the $10 billion lawsuit would rid them of this ongoing legal battle that kicked off back in 2015, according to CultureBanx. Under the umbrella of a Reconstruction-era civil rights law, that says companies can’t discriminate based on race in business contracts, Allen plans to put a stop to the dismissive nature of Charter. 

“Charter will continue to lose this case, and I am going to make an example of them for all of America to see, because structural racism will not be tolerated. Systemic racism kills us in the schoolroom, kills us in the boardroom, and kills us in the courtroom, long before it kills us in the streets, said Byron Allen, Founder/Chairman/CEO of Entertainment Studios in a statement.” 

Remember, the issue here is racial discrimination among contracts and there are millions of people impacted and Entertaniment Studios’ has been denied getting access to Charter’s subscribers. The cable company claims its decision to not carry his channels were based on capacity constraints, not race. The cable company asserted that Allen’s JusticeCentral.TV, Cars.TV, Pets.TV and Comedy.TV, didn’t deserve distribution because the promise of customer demand wasn’t there. It seems as though Charter has chosen to put a price tag on economic inclusion that amounts to $10 billion, at the expense of millions of Americans. 

Banking On Black Media Ownership:

Allen is a successful African American media executive, comedian and entrepreneur activist, who now controls one of the largest Black-owned media companies. The Entertainment Studios’ media empire consists of the Weather Channel purchased in 2018 for $300 million. Additionally, it partnered with Sinclair Broadcasting
SBGI
last year to acquire 21 regional sports networks for $10.6 billion from Disney
DIS
, and has bought 16 Big-Four network affiliate broadcast television stations in two deals for $470 million. 

Entertainment Studios also has 64 syndicated television series, eight cable networks. Currently, there are 50 pay-TV operators that already distribute its content including Verizon Fios, DirecTV, RCN and Suddenlink to 80 million subscribers.

Legal vs Moral Media Win:

Let’s not forget that in Entertainment Studios $20 billion discrimination lawsuit against Comcast
CMCSA
, the Supreme Court’s Justices unanimously decided 9-0 to send the case back to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco in March 2020. The ruling stated thst he needed to prove racial discrimination under the highest “but for” standard, which some legal experts said is a nearly-impossible standard for Allen to achieve.

Trump’s Department of Justice briefs were favored by the Supreme Court in why Comcast wasn’t carrying Allen’s channels, with its alternative interpretation of the Reconstruction-era civil rights law. Together Comcast and Charter, which together control close to 60% of the cable TV market.

What’s Next:

Allen and Comcast did reach a settlement agreement back in June. The financial details weren’t disclosed, but Comcast will now carry three of Allen’s channels including Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, and JusticeCentral.TV. The cable provider will also extend its distribution deal with the Weather Channel. It’s likely we may see a similar outcome in the Charter case, since after more than five years, Allen can proceed against Charter with pre-trial initial disclosures and commence discovery.