Move over Oprah, Diddy and Magic Johnson are joining you, Viacom and Oxygen in ownernship, thanks to Comcast. As a component to the government approving its bid to purchase NBCUniversal, Comcast cast a net to assist in the building of more minority networks. Enter a casting call of that had them reviewing over 100 proposals and selecting four to launch. The four winners are some of our biggest names in entertainment and entrepreneurship and they are: Diddy, who will launch Revolt, a music video station that will launch in 2013. “REVOLT is the first channel created entirely from the ground up in this new era of social media” said Sean “Diddy” Combs. “We’re building this platform for artists to reach an extraordinary number of people in a completely different way. REVOLT will be live, like all great moments in television history. REVOLT will also be immediate, like today’s social networks. We know it was a highly competitive process and we want to thank Comcast for this opportunity to truly change television with REVOLT.” Let's hope he doesn't find out what MTV realized long ago: Folks aren't watching videos on television as much as reality television. Magic Johnson will go the route of TV with Aspire, pegged as a channel that will offer inspirational, uplifting programming highlighting the successes of African Americans. It's in partnership with GMC TV and will include movies, documentaries, short films, music, comedy, visual and performing arts and faith and inspirational programming. Let's hope he provides a heady mix of quality original programming like what Bryant Gumble's Real Sports offered, rather than reruns of old, great black shows (which we do admit we like to see, but more shows with excellent scripts is always welcomed). This will launch in the summer of 2012.
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