National Association of African American Owned Media Seeks More Diverse Contracting From AT&T/DirecTV

The National Association of African American Owned Media has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against AT&T and DirecTV for race discrimination and violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, alleging discrimination in contracting.

"It is estimated that collectively, AT&T and DirecTV spend approximately $22 billion dollars in both cable channel carriage license fees and advertising," NAAOM said, "while less than $3 million of those dollars are allocated to 100% African American owned media." AT&T is currently in the process of trying to buy DirecTV and efforts to spur deal conditions or pledges on diversity, in programming and contracting, are not unusual.