Byron Allen Figured Shit Out But Good

Well-past prime standup comedian Byron Allen has transformed his mediocre syndicated unscripted network of shows into a massive money maker by compelling major cable outlets to take his product as a course of racial bias lawsuits. Allen’s wholly-owned ESN network produces generic channels such as Pets.TV, Recipe.TV, Cars.TV, and Comedy.TV. You get the idea. Allen sued AT&T Uverse (now also including DirecTV) for racial discrimination for not carrying any of his insipid channels. AT&T buckled and now carries seven of Allen’s ESN channels in their lineup. Allen is now suing Charter Communications for $10 billion under the same racial bias, as well as Time Warner and Comcast.

Everybody talks about diversity, and everybody complains about the lack of diversity and economic inclusion. Today, we made history by doing something about it. This lawsuit was filed to provide distribution and real economic inclusion for 100% African American-owned media. The cable industry spends $70 billion a year licensing cable networks and 100% African American-owned media receives ZERO. This is completely unacceptable. We will not stop until we achieve real economic inclusion for 100% African American-owned media.

The question arises, who do you know who happens to have a 100% African-American owned television network? Here’s a hint, he looks a shit ton like Byron Allen. Charter and the other cable outlets are expected to buckle now that the cases have been allowed to proceed based on discriminatory licensing practices. It’s not the money. It’s the opening of all the books these media giants fear.

Byron Allen’s net worth jumped to $300 million based off the ESN rapid audience expansion, surpassing Oprah and Tyler Perry, who while you may not patronize their content, you at least understand how popular it is for millions of fans. You don’t know anybody watching Byron Allen’s programming. Don’t hate the player, hate the game seems to apply here. 

_{Photo credit: Splash News / ESN}