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Where do we go from here? The Future of African American Owned Media



In Kristal Brent Zook’s (2008) “I See Black People: The Rise and Fall of African American-Owned Television and Radio”, the author asks a simple question that sets the stage and will guide my overall thesis project, “why are there so few radio and television stations currently owned by African-Americans?” This topic led me to create my docuseries "Where do we go from here? The future of African American owned media. In order to explore the future, we must look to the past to discover what happened.


It all began back in the 1930’s, that’s when the U.S. government decided to open up the television airways for “want to be broadcasters.” Unfortunately, this tremendous privilege was only given to white males. Since then, African-Americans were forced to continue to deal with the underlining racism when it comes to “playing ball” in the world of owning a television network. In 2017, there were 1,761 television stations on the air with only 10 of them being owned by African-Americans (statista.com). This paragraph is the thrust of my thesis title and the tentpole of my case study of the need of a more leveled playing ground in the world of television network ownership in America.


Now here is the main issue at hand, once again, why are there so few African-American owned television networks? In the 1970s, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) attempted to help create opportunities for people of color with the “Minority Ownership Policy,” a measure that offered tax incentives to people seeking to sell stations to minority owners (Zook 2008). As a result of this policy, we today have, Black Entertainment Television (BET), ASPiRE, Revolt, TVOne and OWN to name a few. Still these networks and many other start-ups still face the tremendous task of being picked up by cable providers. Many new start-up owners and past trailblazers say prejudice and discrimination still exist within the economic structures, policies and characteristics of the television industry thus hindering growth and competition within the sector.


This case of African-American television network ownership rages on today. In December 2014, media mogul and former comedian, Byron Allen’s, of Entertainment Studios, issued a $20 billion-dollar lawsuit against Comcast and Time Warner. Allen’s lawsuit accused the cable companies of discriminating against black-owned media companies by creating and reserving just “a few spaces” for their channels at “the back of the bus.” (https://deadline.com/2015/08/comcast-time-warner-al-sharpton-lawsuit-racist-policies-1201379590/). In November 2018, a federal appellate court ruled Allen’s racial discrimination lawsuits will be able to proceed. This after a California federal district judge had dismissed the case. AT&T (Time Warner) did eventually decided to work with Allen to avoid more litigation. (https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/byron-allen-att-racial-discrimination-lawsuit-channels-1201668233/)


Meanwhile, all people of color looking to become the next television network owner and current moguls are now facing an even greater threat to securing and cementing their dreams. That threat is in the form of five corporations (News Corporation, Disney, ViacomCBS, Time Warner (AT&T) and Comcast) which now own 90% of the U.S. media, with people of color owning just 6% of the commercial television stations across the country. The FCC rules and regulations currently limits television station groups to holdings that reach no more than 39% of the country but broadcasters want to see the cap to increase to 50% or more. In the meantime, the largest African-American owned network, BET, was just acquired by Viacom in October 2018. (https://abcnews.go.com/Business/story?id=89100&page=1)


Lastly, 46.3 million of the 325.7 million Americans are Black, that’s approximately 12% of the U.S. population (U.S. Census). In 2018, African-Americans have the buying power of $1.2 trillion dollars. (http://fortune.com/2018/02/28/raceahead-nielsen-report-black-buying-power/) The resources are there for many to create and launch their own television networks. So, does diversity really matters in the world of television network ownership? Meanwhile, African-American broadcasters will continue to wonder whether the national government step up and enforce, update or create policies that will enable and provide fair competition for African-Americans and other people of color to take part in television network ownership game or will they stand idly by and do nothing? Stay tuned.


What are your thoughts on this topic? Does it really matter? Please check out our new docuseries.

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