Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios has a carriage deal with AT&T and DirecTV a little more than a year after it joined in a $10 billion lawsuit that accused the distributors of carrying too few minority-owned services. The telco’s DirecTV picked up Comedy.TV and Justice Central.TV beginning today, the company says in a brief announcement. U-verse will offer Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, ES.TV, MyDestination.TV, Cars.TV, and Pets.TV — and continue to offer Justice Central. The deal resolves a discrimination suit against AT&T and DirecTV filed last December by Entertainment Studios and the National Association of African American Owned Media. The charge that the pay TV companies had discriminated against minority-owned channels came as AT&T and DirecTV awaited government approval for their merger deal which closed in July. The telco and satellite company paid $22 billion a year on carriage fees and ads, but only $3 million of that went to companies 100% owned by African Americans, the suit charged. The lawsuit states that, together, AT&T and DirecTV spend about $22 billion a year on channel carriage fees and advertising. Of that, less than $3 million goes to 100% African American owned media. The companies vigorously denied that they had discriminated. Entertainment Studios filed similar legal challenges against Comcast and Time Warner Cable, which also denied the charges. Source: Deadline |