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Small business owners in Atlanta, GA, are in for a real treat thanks to this move by Comcast. The telecommunications company has announced that it will award 100 businesses in the area with $1 million in grants. The grants will be available to small businesses that are owned and operated by women and people of color including Black, Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian American owners. Atlanta makes up one of the five cities included in the Comcast RISE Investment Fund, which has allotted a total of $5 million to be distributed across 500 businesses. To date, the company has been able to provide $16 million to businesses owned by people of color. Other cities that have been tapped to participate in the program include Detroit, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Twin Cities. Formed in 2020, Comcast RISE — whose acronym stands for “Representation, Investment, Strength and Empowerment” — has been on a mission to equip business owners from underrepresented communities with the resources needed to...
Comcast is committed to equipping low-income Americans will the tools and resources needed to succeed in the digital world. As the company celebrates the 10th anniversary of its Internet Essentials program, an announcement was made that it would invest $1 billion over the next 10 years to help close the digital divide. Since 2011, the company has collaborated with its network of thousands of nonprofit partners to connect more than 10 million people in America to broadband Internet at home — the overwhelming majority did not have a connection prior to signing up. The $1 billion commitment includes investments in numerous critical areas that include: additional support for its ongoing Lift Zone initiative which will provide WiFi-connected safe spaces in 1,000+ community cities nationwide by the end of 2021; new laptop and computer donations; grants for nonprofit community organizations to create opportunities for low-income Americans, and more. “Ten years is a remarkable milestone,...
Comcast NBCUniversal is standing on its commitment to advance equity, inclusion, and the communities that they serve as they look ahead to the future. Last year, Comcast CEO and Chairman, Brian Roberts announced the company’s multiyear $100 million plan to advance social justice and equality. No stranger to diversity, the pledge marked yet another pivotal moment in the annual investments made by the cable giant to promote not only Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I), but their commitment to uplifting local communities. “Over the last year our company has come together like never before — to educate and uplift our employees, advance equity, and reorient our support of underserved, underrepresented, and under-resourced communities,” said Comcast NBCUniversal Executive Vice President, and Chief Diversity Officer, Dalila Wilson-Scott in a press statement. “This is a journey — one that started long before renewed calls for racial justice this past summer– and one that will be...
REVOLT will be in more households by month’s end. On Sept. 29, Comcast will expand REVOLT’s availability to Xfinity TV customers across the country in new and existing markets. Under the networks’ new deal, the hip hop TV platform will be added to the Xfinity Digital Starter package in various cities. As a result, millions of more viewers can tap into the Black-centric channel. View this post on Instagram A post shared by REVOLT (@revolttv) “Comcast was one of the first television distributors to carry REVOLT to millions of its customers when it launched in 2013, and we are very pleased to bring its creative music- and social justice-focused content to even more Xfinity TV customers across the country,” said Dana Strong, President, Xfinity Consumer Services. Cities included in the new package expansion are Philadelphia, Northern New Jersey, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Ft. Myers, Jacksonville, Tampa, Knoxville, Indianapolis, Charleston, and Augusta. “REVOLT exists to tell our stories...
After a five year legal battle, Byron Allen — media mogul and owner of The Weather Channel — and Comcast have come to a mutual settlement. According to Black Enterprise, the communications company has agreed to pick up three channels that are a part of Allen’s Entertainment Studios: JusticeCentral.TV, Recipe.TV, and Comedy.TV. Allen filed a $20 billion civil rights lawsuit against Comcast in 2015 citing the Civil Rights Act of 1866 which prohibits racial discrimination in business contracts. Allen asserted that Comcast’s channel lineup featured Caucasian-owned channels that didn’t measure up to the mainstream visibility of his channels. The Supreme Court threw out Allen’s suit , handing it back over to lower courts to determine if Comcast’s decision to not pick up his cable channels involved race. Earlier this year New York City Comptroller, Scott Stinger, encouraged Comcast to settle the suit with Allen over nine million Comcast shares worth $423 million that are a part of the New...
The fight continues for Byron Allen’s lawsuit against media and communications giant, Comcast. On Monday, the Supreme Court dismissed a lower court case that would allow Allen to advance one step further in his $20 billion racial bias lawsuit against the media company, The New York Times reports. Allen, a former comedian turned businessman and entertainment media mogul filed a lawsuit against Comcast in 2015 , after the company refused to carry any channels controlled by Allen’s Entertainment Studios. The grounds of Allen’s suit are based on the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a law that prohibits racial discrimination in business contracts. Despite the legitimacy behind Allen’s claims the nine justices unanimously threw out the ruling. As a result, the case was handed back over to the San Francisco-based Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal to make the decision on whether Allen’s claims that Comcast’s refusal to carry Entertainment Studios’ channels was solely based on him being Black. The...
Internet service providers AT&T , Verizon Communications Inc., and Comcast Corporation are all providing internet services for the next 60 days to customers who are unable to pay their bills due to the coronavirus outbreak, reports Black Enterprise. Not only has the trio agreed to not suspend subscribers’ services, but Comcast Xfinity, Charter , and AT&T are also providing free public Wi-Fi for 60 days, according to The Washington Times. While Comcast’s free public Wi-Fi is limited to public hotspot points and does not include home-based hotspot subscriptions, Charter is offering free broadband for students of college age who are not currently enrolled in a subscription. Mobile service provider, T-Mobile has announced that it will remove data caps for smartphone users and expand data allowances to students and schools. Ajit Pai, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), announced the Keep Americans Connected Pledge which calls on telephone and broadband service...
The coronavirus pandemic is affecting pretty much everything. With schools closing and more employees forced to work from home, cable services are stepping up to help. According to Variety , Comcast is expanding its broadband service for low-income families starting Monday (Mar. 16). The cable provider will increase speeds and give free access for 60 days. Comcast will provide these new features through the Internet Essentials program. Through the program, low-income families can sign up as new customers to receive free internet. Additionally, a faster Mbps will become the new standard speed. Normally, the service costs $9.95 per month for qualified households. “Our hope is that broader access and faster speeds will help all of our Internet Essentials customers more easily work from home, access educational resources, obtain important government health care alerts, and stay in contact with their families during this difficult time,” Dana Strong, Comcast Cable’s president of consumer...
We’re used to seeing Andre Iguodala, the 6’6″ swingman, dominate the basketball court, but get ready to witness him transition his skills into the investing industry. The Philadelphia Business Journal announced that Iguodala will be joining the Comcast team as a venture partner for its Catalyst Fund located in San Francisco Bay. The news of Iguodala joining Comcast comes immediately on the heels of his trade from the Memphis Grizzlies to the Miami Heat. The Catalyst Fund is designed to invest in African American, Latinx, and female founders. To date the fund has provided support to more than 70 startups by either directly investing or pairing with accelerator programs, according to its website. Iguodala isn’t new to the world of investing. In fact he and his business partner, Rudy Cline-Thomas founded F9 Strategies. According to Bloomberg Business , the pair holds $25,000 to $150,000 worth of stakes in more than 25 startups including Walker & Co. , Mayvenn , and more. Iguodala...
The heat has been turned up on a lawsuit involving telecommunications giant Comcast and media mogul Byron Allen. This week, New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer contacted the telecom company — one of the largest cable and broadcast companies in the world — encouraging it to settle the suit with Allen. Black Enterprise reported that “ 9 million Comcast shares worth an estimated $423 million ” are part of New York City pension fund investments . Stringer has a vested interest in ensuring that the financial magnitude of the case does not weigh heavily on long-term investors. The comptroller has another interest as well. He believes that the racial discrimination lawsuit could leave a bitter taste in the hearts and minds of many, adding to an ever-divisive national climate. Allen sued Comcast for $20 billion in 2015, citing racial discrimination when Comcast failed to include several of his networks in its programming. Allen affirmed that other white-owned networks appeared in...
Afrotainment and Cleo TV have been named as Comcast’s newest independent launches as part of its merger agreement with NBCUniversal to the U.S. Justice Department. Cleo TV and Afro are both TV One stations set to be broadly distributed by Comcast Xfinity in January. Cleo TV is aimed at breaking stereotypes of women of color, while Afro is described as a polycultural Black television network. “The offerings from both AFRO and CLEO TV serve as an excellent complement to the growing catalog of programming choices we offer about global black communities,” Keesha Boyd, Executive Director, Multicultural Products at Comcast Cable, said in a press release. Cleo TV will offer original programming and acquired content that ranges from cooking shows to home-designing shows. “The best part about CLEO TV is that program formats will be both a mixture of old and new school, and viewers will find shows that have a modern twist,” Robyn Greene Arrington, TV One’s Vice President of Original...