Left to right: Andy Schuon, Sean Combs and Keith Clinkscales




10.21.2013
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At 5 p.m. EST today, October 21, the all-music channel goes live in the homes of about 22 million Comcast subscribers and 12 million Time Warner Cable customers, marking one of the biggest launches of a cable channel in years.

Revolt TV is the latest brainchild of Combs (aka Diddy, P. Diddy, Puff Daddy), a serial entrepreneur who has found success in music as an executive and hip-hop artist as well as in fashion, liquor, marketing and more, helping him accumulate a fortune that Forbes estimated in 2012 at $550 million.

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.

They have been working with a team of more than 100 other hires, mostly at Los Angeles headquarters and in New York City, to figure out how to make the all-music formula work on TV.

Clinkscales says it's a good time to launch because music and digital consumption are both up.

"You have more and more bands and artists going across the whole ecosystem. Music is very healthy," Clinkscales tells The Hollywood Reporter. "To have a place that can be the center of that -- we would like to earn that position by reaching our fans well. We have to have good access and engage with the artists and be able to go ahead and provide sponsors, advertisers, and record companies a place where we can meet."

Two decades after he founded Bad Boy Records, Combs at 44 seems confident he can reach the younger generation and build a significant business by connecting with his audience on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media as a way to lure them to his cable channel. He calls it the first launch in the era of social media.

His pitch is simple. It will be fresh and unlike what you have seen before. "I said it twice," he recently tweeted, "and I'llsay it again. No Rules. Anything can happen. @RevoltTV."

Yea, corporatize a good word, like calling a new Mickey D's hamburger punk. lol

I don't get it, they're launching a cable channel that targets a demographic that is avoiding cable subcriptions? Also, how can they be the #1 name in music if they just launched?

Much of self-promotion is building and expanding your brand structure. A little hyperbole doesn't hurt, either.

There is a reason Mtv doesn't play videos 24hrs a day.

They make more money off of jersey shore etc.

It's kind of like saying there are going to release music on tape and no other format.

I would think that this "music channel" will have a huge web presence, like their version of you tube. In order to gain revenue off video plays. I'm thinking the channel is just the marketing tool to be taking seriously, but the real money comes from their web exploits (you'd hope). Sort of like Martha Stewarts tv show. The real money comes from the stuff she markets during her show and not from the show itself.

How old is Ms. Stewart's generation? Also, the empire she's built is in a little bit of financial trouble. Needless to say, the reasons why Ms. Stewart's brand has hit some ruff waters are multifaceted. Just as the reasons why MTV pulled the plug on videos. Don't get me wrong the cash cow that TV video programming was... sooner or later was going to die. The debate has been, what role did the the music industry play (to their detriment) to kill it.

My 27 year old doesn't own a TV, all of her entertainment/ newspaper subs/ basic info comes from her computer and/or tablet. The hardest demographic group to look at anything besides sports on TV are men, at any age. I think you would need to go to the source of where your target audience are and many of them aren't watching TV. I hope they've tied their brand to extensive on-line (open-source) programming. (IMHO)

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[Edited 10/22/13 16:44pm]

squish said:

I don't get it, they're launching a cable channel that targets a demographic that is avoiding cable subcriptions? Also, how can they be the #1 name in music if they just launched?

You think Diddy gives a shit....he's about to get,

I'm sure he cares very little how well it will do...it's just a matter of time before it goes away and his pockets are full once again.

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[Edited 10/22/13 17:20pm]

Diddy + an MTV exec running a music channel? Sounds revolting.

Diddy’s behind the scenes clip of Revolt TV’s launch day.