_ The Georgia Runoff Election

Rosario Dawson and Wilmer Valderrama join forces to spotlight the upcoming U.S. Senate races and their national impact for Latino and multicultural communities. The two appear, along with Stacey Abrams and other activists, in Fuse Town Hall: The Georgia Run-off Election, which airs on cable network Fuse this Monday, January 4th at 8 PM ET.

The television special is a partnership between Fuse Media, which targets Latino and multicultural millennial and Gen Z audiences, and the Voto Latino Foundation. Dawson and Valderrama will participate in a panel discussion moderated by the grassroots voting organization’s CEO, María Teresa Kumar.

Fuse Media made headlines recently when its Latino-led management group acquired a majority, controlling stake in the cross-platform entertainment brand, which includes Fuse, FM (Fuse Music), as well as video-on-demand and digital properties. The transaction makes Fuse Media among the few remaining Hispanic-owned cable media properties.

The company has also been in the news for a carriage dispute with AT&T T +2.4%, the largest vertically-integrated media company. Fuse Media lodged a complaint with the FCC accusing AT&T of throwing its weight around unfairly.

In this interview, CEO Miguel (Mike) Roggero and content distribution head Judi Lopez talk about the upcoming voting special, their management buyout and the FCC complaint against AT&T.

A man and a woman
Fuse Media's CEO Miguel (Mike) Roggero and Head of Content Distribution Judi Lopez FUSE MEDIA
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The two of you, along with ad sales lead Fernando Romero and others, recently took a controlling stake in Fuse Media. Why is it important that the company is a minority-owned media property?

Mike Roggero: With this historic acquisition, we have taken ownership of our destiny. And by being not only minority-owned, but Latino-owned, controlled and managed, Fuse has the benefit of being aligned across the board with the consumers we have been targeting for more than 16 years.

This couldn't be more important, particularly at a time when the country is being influenced more than ever by the Latino and multicultural population who make up our audience, and is an increasingly powerful force culturally, economically and – as we are seeing during the elections and key moves being made during the White House transition – politically.

There are very few Hispanic-owned and managed television networks. What are the implications for viewers?

Judi Lopez: Unfortunately, with the loss of [filmmaker Robert Rodriguez’s] El Rey, which is shutting down at the end of 2020, we are the only Latino-owned cable network that's serving this audience in English. We make up nearly 19% of the U.S. population, and st