Allen Media Group
Allen Media Group, alternately known by its former name of Entertainment Studios, Inc. is an American media and entertainment company based in Los Angeles. Owned and founded in 1993 by businessman Byron Allen, the company was initially involved in the production and distribution of first-run television series for American television syndication. Under the Entertainment Studios Networks division, it also operates a group of digital cable and satellite channels, which broadcast a mix of original programs and the company's syndicated content.
In the late 2010s, the company made several major expansions to its operations, including entering the film distribution market; acquiring The Weather Channel from NBCUniversal and Bain Capital; partnering with Sinclair Broadcast Group to operate the regional sports network chain Bally Sports via Diamond Sports Group; and its acquisition of television stations from another minority-owned media group, Bayou City Broadcasting.
History
With television experience as being a former co-host of the NBC series Real People from 1979 until 1984, stand-up comedian Byron Allen launched his own weekly syndicated late-night talk show, The Byron Allen Show, in 1989. It was produced by his BYCA Productions and Allbritton Communications, and distributed by Genesis Entertainment.By 1991, Allen had created BYCA Television Distribution to take over distribution of his talk show as well as syndicate other programs. By early 1993, Allen's talk show, which became a weeknight strip the previous fall, had been cancelled, and BYCA Television Distribution had been embroiled in a lawsuit filed by former employees who claimed they had not been paid by Allen. Amidst the legal and financial issues, creditors forced BYCA into Chapter 7 bankruptcy. The same year, Allen founded CF Entertainment. Following a similar business model to BYCA, Allen was able to succeed where he had failed before by focusing on producing low-cost, syndicated non-fiction programming, including interview series and court shows. Allen served as host for some of these programs. In December 2003, CF became Entertainment Studios. Entertainment Studios green-lit its first film and stage projects in December 2011, when it acquired the rights to develop a biographical film and theatrical play on the life of Sammy Davis Jr. from his daughter, Tracey Davis.
The company ventured into scripted programming in 2012, with the third-quarter launch of the sitcoms Mr. Box Office and The First Family. Both were set for 104 episodes over two years under a model of accelerated production similar to Debmar-Mercury's 10-90 Model. The two half-hour shows were picked up as a two-hour weekend primetime programming block with two episodes of each show back to back by Tribune, Weigel and CBS Television Station groups.
The company launched its eighth cable channel and first ad-supported service, Justice Central.TV, on December 10, 2012.
In 2015, the company separately sued AT&T, Comcast, and Charter Communications for racial discrimination in being biased against minority-run entertainment companies in not carrying its cable channels. AT&T settled in December with the addition of 7 of Entertainment Studios' channels added to AT&T's DirecTV lineup. Entertainment Studios added similar suits against Charter and the FCC. The Comcast case, though initially dismissed at the district court, was allowed to go forward by the Ninth Circuit; Comcast was able to successfully petition the Supreme Court to hear its case in Comcast v. National Association of African-American-Owned Media in November 2019.
In October 2015, Entertainment Studios acquired Freestyle Releasing for an undisclosed amount "said to be sealed for high-eight figures". Freestyle also had an output deal with Netflix. The Freestyle purchase was used to bolster an expansion into film distribution, via its new Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures division. Its first release, 47 Meters Down, took in $44 million in box office revenue.
In June 2016, Entertainment Studios acquired TheGrio, a news website focusing on stories of interest to African Americans.
In mid-September 2017, the company announced plans to launch an over the top sports streaming service known as Sports.tv.
On March 22, 2018, Entertainment Studios announced its intent to acquire The Weather Channel's television assets from an NBCUniversal/Bain Capital/Blackstone Inc. partnership. The actual value was undisclosed, but was reported to be around $300 million; the channel's non-television assets, which were separately sold to IBM two years prior, were not included in the sale. In September 2018, Entertainment Studios announced that it had arranged $500 million worth of credit facilities through Deutsche Bank Securities, Jefferies Financial Group, Brightwood Capital Advisors and Comerica. Allen explained that these funds were to be used for further "large-scale" acquisitions, productions, and other general expenses. In an interview with Variety, Allen stated that he was "not a seller", and that he was "one or two acquisitions away from being a fairly large company".
On May 3, 2019, it was announced that, under the subsidiary Diamond Sports Group, Entertainment Studios would be an equity and content partner in Sinclair Broadcast Group's acquisition of Fox Sports Networks.
On May 6, 2019, Entertainment Studios announced that it would expand into television station ownership with the $165 million acquisition of four small-market TV stations from Bayou City Broadcasting, establishing Allen Media Broadcasting. The company acquired another 11 broadcast television stations from USA TV in February 2020.
In June 2020, Comcast agreed to carry Entertainment Studios' Comedy.TV, JusticeCentral.TV, Recipe.TV, and The Weather Channel, and to retransmission consent for the Allen Media Broadcasting television stations, as part of a settlement of the Supreme Court racial discrimination lawsuit. Allen acquired This TV and Light TV from MGM in October.
In April 2021, Allen acquired seven television stations from Gray Television, expanding the company's portfolio to 23 ABC-NBC-CBS-Fox network affiliate broadcast stations across 19 markets.
In July 2022, Allen Media Group acquired Black News Channel out of bankruptcy from Shahid Khan for $11 million; it was discontinued as a separate service, with its carriage merged into TheGrio.TV.
In 2023, Allen made multiple high profile offers on legacy media assets. In September, he offered $10 billion to Disney for ABC, FX, and National Geographic Channel linear TV assets. He then made a $3.5 billion bid for Paramount's BET Media Group in December. By January 2024, Allen's offer had become a $30 billion bid for Paramount Global. When Skydance Media's offer was accepted, he attempted to increase his bid.
Beginning in late April 2024, Allen Media Group laid off about 300 employees, or around 12 percent of its staff, throughout all of its operating divisions. The company's explanation for the staff reduction is to better position themselves for further growth. In August, it was reported that Allen Media had been consistently late in making payments to network owners.
Further layoffs took place in January 2025, with announced plans to lay off nearly all meteorologists from its local television stations in favor of centralizing weather coverage at The Weather Channel. However, following public criticism of the move, AMG partially reversed course and stated that it would retain some of its local meteorologists.
In June 2025, Allen Media Group announced it would explore a sale of its 28 owned and operated broadcast TV stations. On August 8, 2025, it was announced that Gray Media would acquire 10 stations for $171 million; expecting to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2025.
McDonald's advertising suits
In 2021 Allen sued fast food chain McDonald's for $10 billion in federal court, alleging that the company "intentionally discriminated against Entertainment Studios and Weather Group through a pattern of racial stereotyping and refusals to contract" for advertising across its properties. This suit was dismissed in late 2021.Allen sued McDonald's again in federal court, alleging racial discrimination. The company said the case was "about economic inclusion of African American-owned businesses in the U.S. economy. McDonald's takes billions from African American consumers and gives almost nothing back." The lawsuit alleged that Blacks represent 40% of fast food customers, but McDonald's spent just 0.3% of its $1.6 billion U.S. ad budget in 2019 on Black-owned media.
Separately, in May 2021, McDonald's publicly promised to raise its spending on Black-owned media from 2% to 5% of its ad budget by 2024. Two years later, in 2023, Allen sued McDonald's in California courts for not honoring that promise.
Both the federal suit and the state suit were settled before a scheduled federal trial in 2025 for undisclosed terms. McDonald's said it would buy ads "in a manner that aligns with its advertising strategy and commercial objectives" while Allen said "we acknowledge McDonald's commitment to investing in Black-owned media properties and increasing access to opportunity. Our differences are behind us."
Television series distributed by Entertainment Studios
Entertainment Studios has historically been known for its syndicated programs, which are distributed using a bartered model that does not require stations to pay a rights fee. The company sells national advertising inventory guaranteeing an audience in aggregate across all of its programs, and shares the revenue with stations. Allen explained to Bloomberg in 2013 that this business model was attractive to stations that cannot afford to acquire programs from the syndication market, and that "we offer, across all our television shows, probably 20 million to 25 million viewers a week".The company has employed various cost-cutting techniques, including using non-union staff, and streamlining productions to reduce their complexity—a technique that also allows it to produce programming at an accelerated pace. A prominent example of these practices are present in the company's court shows, which are dramatized with actors rather than arbitration-based like other popular entries in the genre; Allen explained that with this model, "we don't have the cost of airfare, hotels, security; we don't have the costs of the claims, the settlements." The studio's first production—Entertainers with Byron Allen—bypassed budget constraints by filming interviews at press junkets, using equipment that was provided by film studios for use by the media.
These practices have allowed some of Entertainment Studios programs to bring in sizable amounts of advertising revenue, even with clearances in lesser-viewed time slots such as late night, or without having produced new episodes in an extended period.