Ted Johnson, Variety
- As federal regulators mull its proposed joint venture with NBC Universal, Comcast said it will commit at least $20 million to a fund for minority-owned new media ventures when the deal closes.
Comcast also said that it was boosting the number of independently owned and operated networks it had committed to adding to its cable service. They plan to add at least 10 new channels to their digital tier over the next 8 years. In its initial list of public interest pledges unveiled at the time the transaction was announced in December, Comcast said it would add six channels over three years.
Of the new channels, at least four will be ones in which African Americans own a majority of the equity. At least two of the channels would be launched in the first two years after the deal is closed.
Comcast’s new commitments came in a letter to Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), who held a House subcommittee field hearing on Thursday in Chicago on the implications of the joint venture.
