Byron Allen
Founder/Chairman/CEO
Entertainment Studios Inc./Allen Media Group
BACKGROUND: Allen, who started his career as a teenage standup comic, founded Culver City-based Entertainment Studios is 1993. He has built the company into a global media brand that owns TV stations and produces content for broadcast, cable and digital outlets. In 2018 Allen acquired The Weather Channel’s television assets for roughly $300 million. Last year, he announced plans to launch The Weather Channel Español. Also in 2019, Allen was tapped as an equity and content partner for Diamond Sports Group and acquired four small-market TV stations for $165 million.
THE LATEST: In March, Allen made an $8.5 billion cash bid for Tegna Inc., the broadcasting and digital business of Gannett Co. Inc. That same month, Allen’s five-year legal battle with Comcast Corp. over racial discrimination was derailed when the Supreme Court ruled that his $20 billion lawsuit against the media giant needed to meet a higher threshold to continue. Allen had sued Comcast for refusing to carry his entertainment channels.
Byron Allen has been featured in our LA500: Most Influential People in L.A. list for 2 consecutive years.
