Comcast's Black Experience on Xfinity Premieres Award-Winning Documentary ‘Color'
Key Takeaways
PHILADELPHIA, January 28, 2025 /3BL/ - Comcast NBCUniversal announced the exclusive premiere of the award-winning documentary, Color, on Black Experience on Xfinity and the Xumo Play free streaming app. The 90-minute documentary, from multi-award-winning writer and director John Campbell and featuring acclaimed multidisciplinary artist and founder of Dark Matter Media Alteronce Gumby, takes viewers on a global journey to redefine how color is perceived and understood across different cultures.
The highly acclaimed documentary was nominated for Best Documentary at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival, featured in the Montreal Independent Film Festival, and received awards at the Cine Paris Film Festival and International Independent Film Awards. It is now available exclusively on Comcast's Black Experience on Xfinity channel, a comprehensive content destination featuring the best in Black storytelling from diverse programming partners and film studios and a variety of original documentaries showcasing diverse talent and content creators. Color is also available on the Xumo Play free streaming app for non-Xfinity customers.
Color takes viewers around the world starting with captivating discussions and demonstrations with pigment expert Michael Ambron and celebrity stylist Jerome Lamaar in the Bronx, NY and then to Mardi Gras in New Orleans, Louisiana, to celebrate the vibrancy of French Creole, Caribbean, African, African American, and global cultures. The documentary then travels internationally, experiencing the vibrant colors of the Holi Festival in India, the red sands of the Sahara Desert, the crimson-hued city of Marrakech, Morocco, and to the Great Barrier Reef featuring conversations with marine ecologist Dr. Catherine Kim. The adventure concludes in Alaska with the Northern Lights in Fairbanks, featuring conversations with documentarian Shondiin Mayo.
'Color is more than what meets the eye; it's a language, a story waiting to be told in every corner of the world.' shared Campbell. 'Partnering with Comcast and the Black Experience on Xfinity, we aim to transform how audiences experience and interpret color, diving deep into the cultures that breathe life into it.'
Color is the second collaboration between Comcast's Black Experience on Xfinity and director John Campbell, who previously debuted Who's Behind Black Art on the platform last year. Who's Behind Black Art is a four-part docuseries that explores the lives of five emerging artists navigating the industry and their journey to create a unique exhibition.
We're proud to deepen our ongoing collaboration with director John Campbell as we explore the many dimensions of color and its profound impact on our daily lives and we couldn't think of a better collaborator to explore the topic than Alteronce Gumby, whose obsession with color is so obviously present in all his work.
Loren Hudson, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer, Connectivity and Platforms at Comcast
'Through Black Experience on Xfinity, we aim to create a space where creators can share their unique perspectives, fostering meaningful connections with audiences everywhere,' said Loren Hudson, SVP and Chief Diversity Officer, Connectivity and Platforms at Comcast.
Black Experience on Xfinity is available at home on Xfinity X1 and Flex, and on-the-go with the Xfinity Stream app. Additionally, the Black Experience destination is available to NOW Internet customers. The Black Experience on Xfinity features original and high-quality content from Comcast NBCUniversal and other major studios, in addition to content from many of Xfinity's existing network partners, at no additional cost to Xfinity customers.
Xfinity customers can access the Black Experience on channel 1622 or simply say 'Black Experience' into the Voice Remote to instantly enjoy the ultimate in Black storytelling. Non-Xfinity customers will be able to view Color on Xumo Play, Comcast and Charter's free ad-supported streaming service app.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
CBS News
3 hours ago
- CBS News
2025 Pride celebrations go ahead despite corporate exodus. But organizers say it won't be easy.
The architects of Pride celebrations across the United States met six-figure challenges this year, owing to a corporate exodus in the spring that diminished their sponsorship funds, which they said would jeopardize future programming. Organizers are contending with serious budget shortfalls as Pride Month begins, and several reported 20% to 30% less corporate support than in past years. The show will go on this summer, they said, but what happens next is less certain. "We're going to make it to the event," said Suzanne Ford, the executive director of San Francisco Pride, who told CBS News five corporate sponsors cut ties with the organization over the course of one overwhelming week in March and several others reduced their funding. "The real question now is, what kind of shape are we going to be in on the other side of Pride? Are we going to be able to keep the doors open?" Corporate partners that backed out of San Francisco Pride this year were historically among its largest and most reliable donors, including Nissan Comcast/Xfinity and Bud Light's parent company, Anheuser-Busch. Along with Target, Bud Light has faced public backlash and boycotts over its Pride advertising in recent years. "That hurt us greatly," Ford said of losing Anheuser-Busch, previously "one of the very largest" sponsors of San Francisco Pride. "Comcast and Nissan have been significant and have been longtime partners. They've been with us for a long time, so it was money that we've counted on." Their retreats meant San Francisco Pride was operating at a loss of about $300,000, which Ford hopes will shrink to about $200,000 once increased donations are factored in from other sponsors, who raised their pledges to narrow the gaps left by the bigger brands. Two large corporate partners, Benefit Cosmetics and La Crema, initially dropped their sponsorship contracts but have since returned as partners, Ford said. Apple was a sponsor of San Francisco Pride in 2023, when the technology company also sent a contingency to march in the parade. Miikka Skaffari/WireImage/Getty Images Several brands that stepped back from Pride partnerships in San Francisco have done the same in other cities. Anheuser-Busch, known for decades as a supporter of the LGBTQ community, also declined to sponsor the 2025 Pride Festival in its hometown of St. Louis, according to that event's organizers. The company had been one of their leading sponsors for the last 30 years, the organizer's said. Pride Month was originally conceived as a way to commemorate the 1969 Stonewall riots, which are credited with kick-starting the modern gay rights movement, and it has evolved since then into a multifaceted celebration of the LGBTQ community. Local Pride plans typically involve multiday event rosters with at least one march, parade or festival, which are intermittently known to draw a million or more attendees. Celebrations around Pride grew tremendously over the last decade or so, organizers say, in large part because of an influx of corporate sponsorships cropping up after the U.S. legalized marriage equality in 2015. The upward trend in brand support was so steep for a period of time that some sponsors were accused of exploiting LGBTQ issues for the purpose of turning a profit. That trend looked very different this year, as corporate sponsors around the country either withdrew their support for Pride festivities or significantly scaled it back. Many attributed their decisions to financial strain or internal transitions, according to statements from several companies and organizers who recalled their conversations to CBS News. "Nissan is currently reviewing all marketing and sales spending — including select consumer auto shows, sports properties and other entertainment activations — to maximize both efficiency and breakthrough effectiveness," a Nissan spokesperson said of the brand breaking partnerships with Pride organizers in San Francisco as well as New York City. New Yorkers celebrate during the annual Pride March in Manhattan on June 30, 2024. Alex Kent / Getty Images But organizers and supporters see a pattern in the sponsorship cancellations, which some consider implicit byproducts of the Trump administration's anti-DEI policies and ongoing attacks on transgender Americans. Ron de Harte, the co-president of the Board of Directors at USA Prides, a national network of Pride organizations, said the decline in national brand sponsorships for Pride events is widespread this year. "This is happening with festival and event sponsorships across the board," said de Harte in a statement. "Of course, bad economic times are coupled with the current administration's unfriendly actions toward the LGBTQ communities, so some markets have sponsors who have moved on." As the Capital Pride Alliance organized WorldPride this year in Washington, D.C., it grappled with a litany of complications leading up to this weekend's international gathering. After President Trump took over the Kennedy Center, multiple WorldPride events were either canceled or relocated under new leadership. In addition, the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, a major federal contractor, backed out of its 2025 WorldPride contract in a move that critics thought bent to government pressure. A spokesperson for Capital Pride Alliance said Booz Allen was the only WorldPride sponsor that canceled a finalized contract, but others dropped out in various stages of the sponsorship process, including Comcast/Xfinity, Deloitte and Visa. The spokesperson said some brands became "silent partners," which means they donate in the background but avoid the publicity that can come with outright sponsorship. Matt Cheng, the director of corporate sponsorships at Heritage of Pride, the nonprofit that produces New York City Pride events, told CBS News that its corporate partners gave various explanations for decreasing or eliminating support. Economic weariness was among them, he said, along with fear of retaliation. "One of the big ones is the tariffs and economy. A lot of budgets have gotten slashed from a DEI and marketing perspective," he said. "But then the other one is fear of backlash from the federal government." Participants walk with balloons during the annual Pride Parade in West Hollywood, California, June 1, 2025. Daniel Cole / REUTERS Heritage of Pride lost roughly one-quarter of its sponsorship dollars, or about $750,000, in the last few months. Large companies like Deutsche Bank ramped up their earlier donations to organizations because of the shortfall, and a poll of about 100 individual donors recently gave $10,000 or so, Cheng said. He hoped New York City Pride fundraisers would bring them closer to zero losses. "In addition to reviewing our budget lines to make sure we can afford to put on Pride the way that it typically is put on, our other concern is our year-round programming," he said. More immediately, a 25% budget gap would likely require Heritage of Pride to cut their only two grant programs, both of which support at-risk communities, Cheng added. Like San Francisco, St. Louis and WorldPride in D.C., New York City Pride also lost large sponsors. Nissan and PepsiCo both pulled support from Heritage of Pride after previously being top donors, according to public partnership information released last year and Kevin Kilbride, the media and marketing manager at the nonprofit. Other sponsors have reduced their funding but are still planning to march in the upcoming Manhattan parade, Kilbride said. Target has remained a silent partner of New York City Pride. Kilbride said Target continues to be "a valued partner" and its sponsorship this year was "at a level consistent with years' past." "We are absolutely dedicated to fostering inclusivity for everyone — our team members, our guests, our supply partners, and the more than 2,000 communities we're proud to serve," a Target spokesperson said in a statement. "As we have for many years, we will continue to mark Pride Month by offering an assortment of celebratory products, hosting internal programming to support our incredible team and sponsoring local events in neighborhoods across the country." CBS News contacted Anheuser-Busch, Booz Allen Hamilton, Comcast, Deloitte and PepsiCo but did not receive replies.
Yahoo
12 hours ago
- Yahoo
Paramount May Usher In a Big Change to Hollywood's Ruling Class (Guest Column)
Family offices have long been part of Hollywood's DNA, quietly shaping its most iconic moments and technological progress. Paramount Pictures was one of Hollywood's first family-controlled studios under business titan Adolph Zukor, who developed the vertical integration approach, ensuring that ambitious films like Wings (1927), the first Oscar winner, got the resources and distribution they needed to succeed. The recent David Ellison-Paramount Global deal is a prime example of how private wealth is returning to Hollywood to once again play a pivotal role in shaping Hollywood's future with a blend of technology, creativity and flexible capital. Family offices now command financial firepower on par with the world's largest media giants (the Ellison family's net worth currently sits around $200 billion — greater than the market cap of Comcast and on par with that of Disney), but unlike those media giants, family offices can make billion dollar decisions via text based on their business and creative instincts. More from The Hollywood Reporter Upfronts Kick Off: Hollywood's Ad Dollar Scramble Arrives in Strangest Market in Years Paramount+ Hits 79 Million Subscribers as Streaming Loss Shrinks to $109 Million 'Avatar: The Last Airbender in Concert - The 20th Anniversary Tour' to Take Flight (Exclusive) With the entertainment industry undergoing an overall business model transformation with the advent of streaming and digital disruption, as well as changing consumer behavior, family office capital has many advantages compared to institutional capital, which is constrained by its very nature. To wit, institutional capital has formal and rigid management structures, restrictions on the types securities/investments allowed, timing and duration limitations on capital invested, requirements for management fees and other performance fees, financial metrics that must be met, regulatory compliance and reporting, complex formalities including voting and approval structures that slow things down and lead to unpredictable outcomes depending on ever-changing leadership teams. Conversely, family offices think generationally, are nimble and are not subject to any of those constraints, making them a solid fit for an industry undergoing change and requiring fast, easy, flexible solutions. Any operator who has led an organization through a turbulent market with misaligned short-term quarter-to-quarter capital knows the burden it can have on creativity, as the executive team is often afraid to make bold choices for fear of not delivering on predictable results or they are simply not allowed to proceed, which creates real frustration internally and leads to a crisis of corporate culture. We are witnessing an unprecedented shift in global wealth dynamics, and with it, a surge in family office influence such as the Ellisons. As of May 2024, the global family office market comprised approximately 4,500 single-family offices (SFOs) and 2,500 multi-family offices (MFOs), collectively managing $4.77 trillion and $6.65 trillion in assets, respectively, according to With Intelligence and the Highworth Family Offices Database (which is more AUM than the entire private equity industry). However, these figures only account for discoverable family offices; many operate discreetly, making it difficult to gauge their true scale. With total AUM projected to surpass $11.41 trillion by 2026, family offices are poised to become even more dominant forces in global finance, influencing everything from venture capital to the entertainment industry. As one of the world's largest family offices, Hollywood is rallying behind Ellison, an investor deeply immersed in the creative process and known for being talent-friendly. Ellison's production company, Skydance Media, has produced a mix of original and franchise content, showcasing his commitment to artistic risk-taking and an understanding of storytelling that resonates with global audiences. Dean Devlin, Ellison's former collaborator on Flyboys, hailed him as a 'creative first' powerhouse who founded Skydance to prioritize art over profits. Jeff Shell, soon-to-be Paramount president, described him as someone uniquely positioned at the crossroads of innovation and artistry. Ellison is known for his collaborative partnerships with filmmakers such as Tom Cruise, which may test the limits of any budget conscious studio executive, yet which have paid huge dividends in success. Ellison is not alone in this shift toward family office influence and capital in Hollywood. Bernard Arnault ($154 billion net worth), CEO of LVMH, launched 22 Montaigne Entertainment to challenge Hollywood's creative stagnation, while the Pinault family office ($40 billion net worth) acquired a majority stake in CAA, one of Hollywood's leading talent agencies (which also recently launched a 'Family Office Practice'). Some recent box office successes had family office capital behind them, including Teddy Schwarzman's Black Bear Pictures with A Working Man (No. 1 at the box office), and billionaire Steven Rales's Indian Paintbrush, which won awards for Conclave which has exploded in popularity with the election of Pope Leo XIV (luck or billionaire insight – you decide). Eldridge Industries co-founder and CEO Todd Boehly, through his stake in independent entertainment company A24, has underwritten daring projects like Everything Everywhere All at Once and The Whale — films that might have never seen the light of day in today's blockbuster-driven studio system, yet went on to earn critical and commercial success. (Boehly's Eldridge Industries also has an ownership stake in The Hollywood Reporter.) Similarly, Dan Friedkin's Imperative Entertainment helped bankroll Martin Scorsese's $200 million opus Killers of the Flower Moon, a gamble few studios today would dare attempt. Some of recent decades' most critically acclaimed and culturally significant films also owe their existence to family office-backed capital. RatPac Entertainment, co-founded by Australian billionaire James Packer, is a striking example. RatPac's investments helped bring to life films like The Revenant (2015) and Bridge of Spies (2015), both of which earned widespread critical acclaim and swept major awards circuits — together contributing to an impressive haul of 59 Academy Award nominations and 25 wins. Backed by South Korea's Lee family (Samsung), CJ ENM has also proven how patient, family office capital can uplift meaningful stories with global resonance, including Parasite, Decision to Leave, and The Admiral: Roaring Currents. With a content budget approaching a billion dollars in 2025, CJ ENM is certain to create more globally recognized cinematic achievements. Equally important are the billionaires who find meaningful cultural impact in their Hollywood investments. Participant Media, founded by billionaire Jeff Skoll, showed how private capital can fuel stories that matter and shape culture. Skoll-backed films earned 86 Academy Award nominations and 21 wins, including best picture triumphs with Green Book and Spotlight, and documentaries like An Inconvenient Truth, before Participant ceased operations in April 2024. Skoll, long regarded as one of Hollywood's most creatively driven billionaires, championed passion projects alongside the likes of George Clooney, Steven Soderbergh and Matt Damon. By any measure, Skoll achieved more in terms of creative impact-driven cinema than any billionaire before him — and that legacy deserves celebration. Skoll was truly Roosevelt's 'Man In The [Hollywood] Arena,' and with more than $5 billion in net worth remaining after his Hollywood sojourn, a comfortable retirement still appears assured. In an era where AI is shaping every industry, Ellison is uniquely positioned to lead Paramount's transformation and his forward-looking vision is already underway. On an investor call, he laid out plans to double down on core competencies with a 'creative first' mindset. With his Oracle pedigree, Ellison plans to make New Paramount (as the merged company will be known) a 'tech hybrid' that leverages cloud-based production and generative AI, ensuring that operational efficiency and creative expression grow in tandem to redefine modern filmmaking. Ellison will be tasked with leadership decisions at Paramount Networks and CBS. Those moves require patient, visionary capital capable of weathering the early days of the inevitable J curve without fear of changing direction in the face of quarterly pressures. Ellison's rise offers Hollywood a much-needed course correction in an industry where financial engineering often trumps creative ambition. Ellison's vision, if realized, could dismantle Hollywood's addiction to safe bets and reignite a culture of risk-taking and bold decision making — the kind that birthed Chinatown and The Godfather. The merger, already cleared by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the European Commission, is now poised to clear its final hurdle with the Federal Communications Commission. Let's all hope that President Trump and FCC chairman Brendan Carr promptly approve the deal and restore creativity in Hollywood, so we can all go back to the movies. Greg Suess is a co-founder and head of Activist Artists Management's Family Office Practice, which works with David Steward II's Lionforge Entertainment, the Jonas family (Zedge & IDW), Micheal Loeb ( the Anderson family, Tony Khan's All Elite Wrestling and more. Best of The Hollywood Reporter How the Warner Brothers Got Their Film Business Started Meet the World Builders: Hollywood's Top Physical Production Executives of 2023 Men in Blazers, Hollywood's Favorite Soccer Podcast, Aims for a Global Empire Error while retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data Error while retrieving data
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Sky Content Chief Says 'We Had an Amazing Bubble' in Production
The state of U.K. TV production 'has been really tough, and anybody who's been in production these days would echo that,' Cécile Frot-Coutaz, the CEO of Sky Studios and chief content officer of Sky, owned by Comcast, told the Media & Telecoms 2025 & Beyond Conference in London on Tuesday. 'I think it's been tough for a number of reasons,' she shared at the event, organized by Deloitte and Enders Analysis, . 'Less has been commissioned, although I think if you look back over a period of 10 [or 15] years, I'm not sure there's less today…. So, you know, we had an amazing bubble. Everybody got used to the bubble, and obviously now we're sort of coming back down to volumes that are more akin to those that were experienced 15 years ago.' More from The Hollywood Reporter U.K. Culture Secretary Talks AI Regulation at London Media Conference Netflix EMEA Content Boss Touts 'Adolescence,' Debunks a "Myth," Talks Ted Sarandos' Acting Debut Paolo Sorrentino to Receive Sarajevo Film Festival Honor and Retrospective Also, 'there's been a funding issue, because the U.S. hasn't been co-producing British content nearly in the same way, or actually not at all, potentially,' the Sky top executive added. But she also had a silver lining to tout. 'What we're seeing is [that] Europe is actually coming into some shows. We've seen that on some of our own programming. So you have to be very entrepreneurial these days when looking at how to get things financed, unless you're a goal player like Netflix.' About Sky's content output strategy, she highlighted: 'We were never a volume player. So actually, what we've been doing has been very consistent and very steady, and because we're part of the Comcast group, we're able to be flexible on the funding model.' She concluded by predicting that 'looking forward, I think things will settle again. Hopefully, the U.S. will start to come back online.' She made the comments during a panel discussion that also featured Larry Tanz, vp, content, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) at Netflix, Sarah Rose, president of U.K. broadcaster Channel 5 and U.K. regional lead at Channel 5 owner Paramount Global, and Wayne Garvie, president of Sony Pictures Television. The panel discussed commissioning trends and industry opportunities and challenges. Tuesday's conference also featured top executives from the likes of the Walt Disney Co., U.K. public broadcaster BBC, streaming giant Netflix, and Comcast-owned Sky. Best of The Hollywood Reporter 'The Studio': 30 Famous Faces Who Play (a Version of) Themselves in the Hollywood-Based Series 22 of the Most Shocking Character Deaths in Television History A 'Star Wars' Timeline: All the Movies and TV Shows in the Franchise
