US cable giant Comcast pledged Wednesday to step up programming geared toward Asian Americans, addressing concerns in the community that its growing size has not been reflected on television.

Comcast and NBC Universal, which it is seeking to acquire, signed an agreement with Asian American groups pledging to expand selections and to invest at least one million dollars over three years for new programming.

The new offerings will include "Cinema Asian America," which aims eventually to offer films around the clock to 18 million viewers.

Susan Jin Davis, a vice president at Comcast Cable, said the commitments "position us to better compete in an increasingly diverse business environment."

"This is not just about getting good films to our Asian American viewers; it's about offering good films that all Americans should have the chance to see," she said.

Representative Mike Honda, who heads the Asian American caucus in Congress, said the community has been sorely absent in the media despite its rising size and comparatively high purchasing power.

"For too long, mainstream media has silenced Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders by stereotyping our communities as kung-fu fighters, math nerds and dragon ladies with one-dimensional personalities," said Honda, a Democrat from California.

Comcast's pledges "raise the bar for the entire industry," he said.

The company made the pledges as it seeks approval from regulators to acquire NBC Universal. Critics have charged that the merger, which would create an empire rivaling The Walt Disney Co., would stifle diversity in the US media.

Asian American purchasing power is expected to grow by 42 percent to 775 billion dollars by 2015, according to a study last month by the University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth.