Comcast
has committed to a $20 million capital fund to help minority entrepreneurs
and says it will offer 10 independent networks in the first eight years of a
merged Comcast/NBCU, upping the ante from the six independently owned channels
over three years in its initial public interest pledge.
That
came in a letter from Comcast to Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) in advance of Thursday's Chicago field hearing on the proposed Comcast/NBCU
joint venture.
Comcast
has made a variety of diversity pledges it says will kick in if the government
approves the deal.
Comcast
had already said that at least half of those original six independent
channel commitments would have a significant minority interest. In the letter
it upped that commitment to four channels with African American ownership and
clarified that "significant" means "a majority of equity."
It also said that at least two of those channels would launch in the first two
years following the close of the deal.
It has already pledged four of those independent channel additions to Hispanic owners per commitments announced last week, according to Comcast.
Comcast
also said it was committing to expand its distribution of African
American VOD content, including from Hip Hop on Demand, whose co-creator
Will Griffin was on the witness list at the Hill hearing with nice things to
say about Comcast's "infrastructure of inclusion," as well as commitment
to using "commercially reasonable efforts" to provide "first
priority" to minority ownership groups if it decides to sell any TV
stations, cable systems or channels. It added that it was not contemplating
having to spin off any more assets beyond KWHY-TV Los Angeles. That is the
Spanish-language independent it has pledged to try to find a minority buyer for.
