Media Entrepreneur’s Bias Case Against Comcast Goes To High Court

Byron Allen, a former stand-up comic turned small channel owner, sued cable operators and satellite distributors in 2015 after they refused to license his small channels devoted to topics including criminal justice, cars and pets. He demanded billions of dollars, alleging racial bias against Comcast, DirecTV and others. His suit was rejected multiple times by a district court judge who saw no plausible case that discrimination caused Comcast to not license Allen’s channels, but the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals concluded that Allen needed only to plausibly allege that discriminatory intent was a factor in Comcast’s refusal. The 9th said his case met that standard because Comcast was carrying about 500 networks that Verizon, AT&T U-verse and DirecTV were carrying, but unlike those, it did not carry Allen’s. In addition, Comcast was carrying “lesser-known, white-owned networks.” The fact that the Supreme Court accepted review may be attributable to how the business community has locked onto Allen’s dispute with Comcast as an exemplar of tort nuisance. A supporting brief from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce urged the high court to take it up and argued that choices made in the workplace can be “inherently subjective,” and that by making Comcast prove a negative, that discrimination isn’t any factor in decision-making, will impose unwarranted litigation costs and harm to reputation on companies throughout the country.