*Bryon Allen is coming for CNN, as he has made clear his plans to buy the network one day.
“I’m close to the same age when Rupert Murdoch came here to America,” Allen told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published July 9. “He was in his 50s. I’m 59. What you see today will be 10,000 times bigger.” When pressed on what would make the ultimate jewel in his crown and, without hesitation, Allen replied, “I’d love to own CNN. But I have to buy AT&T to do that. And I will. Believe me, I think about it every day.”
As noted by Black Enterprise, Allen owns Entertainment Studios, which produces more than 60 syndicated shows and seven more 24-hour cable TV networks. The media mogul recently settled his long-running racial discrimination dispute with and Comcast.
As part of a settlement, Comcast will carry Allen’s Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV and JusticeCentral.TV — via its Xfinity cable television packages, NBC News reported.
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Since he was a kid, Byron Allen has played the long game, acquiring assets like #TheWeatherChannel and taking a racial equality dispute with #Comcast all the way to the Supreme Court on a path to global domination https://t.co/RQJ40LLbQk
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) July 9, 2020
Allen sued Comcast for $20 billion in 2015 for refusing to carry his lifestyle channels, arguing that it was because of his race. He also sued cable provider Charter for $10 billion for refusing to carry his networks.
Allen’s attorneys linked a section of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 to the case, which says all people should have “the same right” to contracts as whites.
The settlement will also allow Comcast to launch the free Weather Channel app Local Now on its Xfinity and Flex platforms and the WeLoveWeather.TV website on an authenticated basis, according to the report. Comcast will also have video-on-demand rights to the three new channels.
Allen still has a case pending with Charter Communications.
Comedian Eddie Murphy explained to THR the key to Allen’s success.
“You know how you can sum up Byron is his chess game,” Murphy said. “Byron played a lot of chess back in the early days. There was a group of people in town, like Berry Gordy and Jim Brown, who would fly in good players. I played Byron a lot. I’m a much better chess player than Byron.
“But we didn’t play on the clock — we just played. And that’s Byron’s game. He’s super patient. He takes a long time between every move,” Murphy added. “He does it until you get frustrated — and then you do something stupid, and then all he needs is a little tiny crack. Just a pawn, any type of advantage, and he had you. That is Byron in a nutshell.”
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