NCAAOM Denounces Comcast Diversity Pledge as Extremely Insulting and Garners Support of Rev. Jesse Jackson for 10% Set Aside

NCAAOM Mobilizes National African-American Ministries, Fraternities, Sororities, Journalists, Radio Disc Jockeys, Community and Civil Rights Leaders

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National Coalition of African American Owned Media

Jul 14, 2010, 07:14 ET

LOS ANGELES, July 14 /PRNewswire/ -- The National Coalition of African American Owned Media (NCAAOM) denounces Comcast's promise of four (4) African American controlled networks to its digital tier (not widely distributed) and a $20 million pledge to assist minority entrepreneurs as "extremely insulting."

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Stanley E. Washington, NCAAOM President & CEO stated, "Comcast has approximately 100,000 employees and spends more than $20 million per year on paperclips. Their meaningless pledge confirms that Comcast believes African American subscribers are not worth more than the paperclips on their desk. African American subscribers make up approximately 40% of Comcast's $36 billion annual revenue, representing $15 billion annually."

Washington further states, "Comcast has the capacity to broadcast 500 channels on its cable systems and NCAAOM will not be deterred and will continue to fight for diverse ownership on the Comcast platform until they agree to a pre-merger commitment to allocate 10% of their channel capacity (approximately 50 Networks) to Wholly-Owned African American Media interests and widely carried on their basic tier. Tragically for Comcast, we know Comcast spends $8 billion per year licensing content for their cable systems with less than $2 million per year paid to African American owned networks. NCAAOM will remain relentless until Comcast agrees to commit 10% ($800 million) of their annual programming budget to Wholly-Owned African American Networks," said Washington.

The numbers do not lie and the facts are clear:

Comcast generates over $36 billion a year in revenues and has approximately 25 million subscribers with over 40% or $15 billion annually coming from African American subscribers.
Comcast spends nearly $8 billion a year on programming with less than $2 million paid to African American owned networks.
In many of the U.S. cities where Comcast has a dominant share of the cable market, African Americans comprise a majority or near majority of the population. For example, in Philadelphia — the city in which Comcast is headquartered — African Americans make up more than 43 percent of the city's population.
A little more than 50% of all residents of Washington, D.C. are African American. In Detroit, 8 out of 10 residents are African American. Other Comcast markets with high concentrations of African American subscribers include: Atlanta, Baltimore, Birmingham, Chicago, Jackson, MS, Memphis, New Orleans, Oakland, CA, Pittsburgh, Raleigh-Durham and many more.

NCAAOM doesn't expect any meaningful commitments by Comcast until Brian Roberts, Stephen Burke and Madison Bond are subpoenaed and forced to testify under oath about the systematic shut-out of 100% African American Owned Networks which is the fundamental reason why, after more than 40 years in business as a Cable Television provider, none of the 500 channels on the Comcast Cable systems are 100% African American owned and widely distributed on their national (basic tier) platform. Brian Roberts, Stephen Burke and Madison Bond pay themselves millions of dollars each year as individuals; more than what they pay African American Owned Media collectively.

"Keep your token $20 million investment and commit 10% of the $8 billion you spend annually in licensing content and we will fund ourselves and retain 100% ownership," said Washington.

In light of this highly insulting post-merger promise, we're stepping-up the Comcast Boycott to increase visibility of the huge economic contribution from African American subscribers to Comcast monthly/annual revenue. NCAAOM continues to gain significant momentum and has garnered the support of National African American Ministries, Fraternities, Sororities, Journalists, Radio Disc Jockeys, Community and Civil Rights Leaders including Rev. Jesse Jackson of Operation Push.

About NCAAOM:

The National Coalition of African American Owned Media (NCAAOM) is working to ensure that African American Owned media companies are given the same opportunities as their non-African American counterparts to own, produce compelling content, access distribution, and flourish in today's integrated media landscape. The organization is focused on creating sustained equality through ownership as a means of rectifying the continued racial imbalance within the competitive media industry.

Media Contact: Alescia Buford, [email protected]. 818.995.6545

For further information and to book interviews with Stanley E. Washington, NCAAOM President & CEO

Contact: Helene Chaleff, Executive Assistant, [email protected]. 310.218.0460

Join our NCAAOM Facebook page and follow us on Twitter.

NCAAOM Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#!/group.php?gid=111452938892647&ref=ts

Twitter: http://twitter.com/NCAAOM

SOURCE National Coalition of African American Owned Media