NCAAOM Wants Comcast/NBCU To Spend $800 Million On Minority Programming

The National Coalition of African-American Owned Media wants a merged Comcast/NBCU to set aside 10% of its channel capacity for African-American owned channels, and spend 10% of its annual progamming budget.

That came as NCAAOM's response to a number of diversity pledges made by Comcast, including four African-American- owned channels and spending $20 million on a development fund, which NCAAOM called "extemely insulting."

NCAAOM is headed by Stanley Washington and is backed by two partners in D.C. law firm Patton Boggs, including former FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who is representing a number of deal critics.

NCAAOM on June 7 through a press release threatened to launch a boycott of Comcast unless it added 100% African-American-owned channels, declaring its position in advance of a House Judiciary Committee hearing in Los Angeles on the proposed deal.
NCAAOM has also filed a petition to deny the merger.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.