Byron Allen, the chairman and CEO of the Allen Media Group and owner of the Weather Channel, has settled and withdrawn his $10 billion racial discrimination lawsuit against Charter Communications.
Both Allen and Charter Communications announced the settlement in a joint statement Wednesday. The settlement follows one between Allen and Comcast last summer in which Comcast agreed to carry several of Allen’s channels.
In 2015, the former Real People actor sued both Charter and Comcast for $20 billion alleging the companies weren’t carrying his TV channels due to racism. The suit made it to the Supreme Court, but the high court struck down his arguments in a 9-0 decision, saying it was not enough to assert that race was one of several factors in not picking up his channels, he had to show it was a critical factor in not picking up the channel.
With Charter and Allen settling, the suit is officially over. The terms between Allen and Charter have not been released, but if it’s anything close to his settlement with Comcast, Charter will pick up some of Allen’s channels.
The Allen Media Group owns 16 power four (ABC-NBC-CBS-FOX) affiliate broadcast stations and 10, 24-hour networks including the Weather Channel, Pets.TV, and Comedy.TV. The group also has active license agreements for stations in the Bahamas, Canada, South Africa, and New Zealand.
The former stand-up comedian told the Hollywood Reporter last year that he wants to own CNN one day and he will.
“I’m close to the same age when Rupert Murdoch came here to America,” Allen told the 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, without hesitation, the media mogul 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.”
