Comcast Signs Deals With Magic Johnson And Sean "Diddy" Combs

by Frederick H. Lowe
Comcast Corp., the nation's largest cable-television provider, has signed agreements with two successful African- American entrepreneurs to launch non-white owned cable television networks this summer and in 2013.

Comcast, which is based in Philadelphia, signed deals with Earvin "Magic' Johnson, chairman and CEO of Magic Johnson Enterprises, and entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs.

Johnson, a member of the National Basketball Hall of Fame from his playing days with the Los Angeles Lakers, will launch Aspire, a 24-hour cable television network whose goal is present positive programming for African-American families. This will include movies, documentaries, short films, music, comedy, visual and performing arts, and faith and inspirational programs.
 
Johnson will launch Aspire in partnership with the GMC TV, a 24-hour advertiser-supported commercial cable and satellite TV network devoted to delivering the highest quality uplifting entertainment programming for the entire family, according to its website.
 
"Aspire, will encourage and challenge African Americans to reach for their dreams," Johnson said. Magic Johnson Enterprises, which is based in Beverly Hills, Calif., owns movie theatres and restaurants in the including several Starbucks, Sodexo, T.G.I. Friday's and Burger King locations.

Combs will launch Revolt, a cable television network with Andy Schuon, president and CEO of IMF, The International Music Feed. Schuon is also the former head of programming for MTV, VH1, and MTV2.

Revolt will have programming inspired by the music and pop culture, including music performances, music news and interviews. The channel also will incorporate social media interaction with music artists and their fans.

"Revolt is the first channel created entirely from the ground up in this new era of social media," said Combs founder of Bad Boy Entertainment and Bad Boy Records.

"We're building this platform for artists to reach an extraordinary number of people in a completely different way."  Forbes magazine reported that Combs is worth $500 million.

Revolt is scheduled to launch in 2013 and Aspire is scheduled to begin broadcasting this summer.  It is not yet clear in what cities the new networks will air their programming, said John Demming, senior director of corporate communications for Financial and Diversity Communications. "We are still determining the markets, but the networks will be broadly distributed to millions of homes," Demming said.
 
The network will be included in Comcast's basic level of cable service, he added. Comcast signed the deal with Johnson, Combs and two Hispanic cable-network owners on Tuesday as part of its agreement to purchase in 2011 50.1 percent of  NBC Universal from General Electric Corp. The deal created a $30 billion business that includes broadcast, cable networks, movie studios and theme parks.

Comcast selected Combs, Johnson, El Rey and BabyFirst Americas from more than 100 proposals. In the next eight years, as part of the NBC Universal agreement, Comcast must launch a total of six independent networks.