Media Mogul Byron Allen Sues McDonald’s For $10 Billion, Alleges Franchise Discriminates Against Black-Owned Networks

Media Mogul Byron Allen Sues McDonald’s For $10 Billion, Alleges Franchise Discriminates Against Black-Owned Networks

Byron Allen is claiming that McDonald’s is discriminating against him, and he’s taking them to court for $10 billion!

Specifically, the comedian-turned-television mogul says that McDonald’s practices racial discrimination due to its refusal to advertise on his television networks. Byron Allen‘s media company, Entertainment Studios, owns 12 television networks–the most well-known of which is The Weather Channel.

Since acquiring The Weather Channel back in 2018, Bryon Allen claims that the fast-food giant has outright refused to advertise with them. Allen also alleges that none of the networks owned by Entertainment Studios are able to air McDonald’s ads. In addition to The Weather Channel, these networks include Weatherscan, Local Now, Automotive.TV, Cars.TV, Comedy.TV, ES.TV, JusticeCentral.TV, MyDestination.TV, Pets.TV, and Recipe.TV.

Additionally, the lawsuit puts McDonald’s on blast for only giving about 0.3% of its $1.6 billion annual TV advertising budget to African-American-owned media companies. It is also alleged that African-Americans make up 40% of U.S.-based McDonald’s sales, further emphasizing the disparity in advertising.

Just before Allen filed his lawsuit, McDonald’s released a statement yesterday (Thursday, May 20th) that reaffirmed their commitment to diversity, claiming to increase spending with media companies owned by people of color. The statement reads in part:

“Together with our franchisees, we have doubled down on our relationships with diverse-owned partners. This includes increasing our spend with diverse-owned media from 4 percent to 10 percent and with Black-owned media from 2 percent to 5 percent of total national advertising over the next four years.”

This is not the first time Byron Allen has sued a well-known company for discrimination. Back in 2015, he filed a similar lawsuit against Comcast for not advertising on his networks on account of his race. This case eventually went all the way up to the Supreme Court, where Comcast ultimately decided to run ads on four of the mogul’s networks: The Weather Channel, Comedy.TV, JusticeCentral.TV, and Recipe.TV.

What do you think about Byron Allen suing McDonald’s for racial discrimination? Comment down below and let us know!