In recent years, Comcast has lured Black audiences with the Starz show “POWER,” and Latinx communities with the Starz show “VIDA.”
Now Comcast is threatening to drop Starz unless viewers––especially Black viewers––pay more.
Indeed, Comcast is ready to impose a Black viewer tax that would force its customers in predominantly Black urban neighborhoods to pay an additional $12 per month fee if they want to continue to watch Starz.
This move by Comcast demonstrates an utter lack of appreciation and respect for audiences of color.
Because of its power as a media conglomerate with a growing monopoly on the cable industry, Comcast thinks it can do whatever it wants.
As Malcolm X once said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”
But Comcast’s top executives are miscalculating badly right now and overplaying their hand.
Comcast is facing intense public criticism on multiple fronts and undergoing a huge reputational crisis that undercuts its power.
Comcast is the parent company of NBC Universal, which has lately come under attack from Democratic presidential candidates for its toxic culture.
At the same time, Black viewers are fed up with Comcast, and many are fighting back with the #KeepStarz campaign.
The #KeepStarz campaign is organizing and mobilizing Black Comcast customers in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Chicago, and Washington, D.C.––four key cities where the financial pain of a Black viewer tax will be widely felt.
My organization, The Black Institute, is activating thousands of Black Comcast customers who want to #KeepStarz in their current cable packages and not pay more for it. To date, the campaign has collected 12,000 signatures for our petition, and knocked on 30,00 doors in the various cities.
For Black viewers, Starz is very much a Black channel because of shows like “POWER”––a drama starring 50 Cent that’s set here in New York City.
Many Black folks already have to deal with Comcast’s subprime service and high prices just to get Starz. It’s racist and wrong for Comcast to tell Black viewers to pay even more.
Increasingly, Black elected officials and Black entertainers are calling out Comcast’s despicable behavior.
Baltimore’s City Council voted unanimously “to alert the DOJ, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission that the cable giant isn’t complying with its franchise obligation to promote diverse shows” like “POWER” on Starz. This week, the Washington D.C. City Council rebuked Comcast for undervaluing African American viewers.
To learn more visit https://theblackinstitute.org/keepstarz/
Bertha Lewis is the founder and president of the Black Institute, an “action tank” whose mission is “to shape intellectual discourse and dialogue and impact public policy uniquely from a Black perspective.”