On Monday at 8 p.m. EDT, more than 34 million homes had access to Sean "Diddy" Combs' new brainchild, Revolt TV, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
The new cable channel, which is available to 22 million Comcast subscribers and 12 million Time Warner Cable customers, is Diddy's major play into the television world. In launching it, he is following in the footsteps of other black TV-network founders, such as Bob Johnson for BET and Oprah Winfrey, with OWN.
Now, seven years after he first conceived of a new kind of all-music channel, Combs is pouring tens of millions of that into launching a service aimed at 18- to 34-year-olds — members of the millennial generation — who consume more music than ever but not necessarily in the traditional ways of listening to the radio or watching cable TV. In fact, they are the generation often described as "cord cutters," because they haven't rushed to subscribe to cable and often are more likely to view TV on a mobile phone or tablet computer than on the living-room flat screen.
Combs has chosen Keith Clinkscales, who helped Quincy Jones launch Vibe magazine and spent years doing content development for ESPN, to be CEO of Revolt TV. He hired former MTV programming chief Andy Schuon as president.
Two other big hires have also been named. Bruce Perlmutter, the former editor of E! News, will head production, and Rahman Duke, formerly of MTV, will head the news operation. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Clinkscales says that viewers can expect more than just an imitation of MTV's early years, during which only music videos were played. "The main thing we're going to do is be a place where you can get news and information about music. We want to make sure when you come to Revolt, you're getting a full picture of what is happening in the world of music."
Clinkscales also says that even though Diddy is the face of Revolt TV, the channel will not focus just on urban music. "We are working hard from the launch to be not just an urban channel but a channel that covers all music, from alternative to rock 'n' roll to hip-hop and down the line."
Revolt TV is one of 10 new channels chosen by Comcast since the company bought NBC Universal in 2011.
Read more at the Hollywood Reporter.
Jozen Cummings is the author and creator of the popular relationship blog Until I Get Married, which is currently in development for a television series with Warner Bros. He also hosts a weekly podcast with WNYC about Empire called Empire Afterparty, is a contributor at VerySmartBrothas.com and works at Twitter as an editorial curator. Follow him on Twitter.