Comcast Announces
Agreements with Four New Minority-Owned Independent Networks
Selected Networks
Were Proposed By Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Sean "Diddy"
Combs, Robert Rodriguez, and Constantino "Said" Schwarz
PHILADELPHIA,
PA --
Comcast Corporation, one of the world's leading media, entertainment and
communications companies, today announced it has selected four new
minority-owned independent networks to be broadly distributed on Comcast Cable
systems between April 2012 and January 2014. After a thorough evaluation of
more than 100 proposals, Comcast selected four networks -- two of which are
majority African-American owned and two that are majority American Hispanic
owned and operated and programmed in English.
"We are thrilled to work with
such talented individuals to launch these new networks that will bring exciting
and fresh content to consumers," said David L. Cohen, Executive Vice
President, Comcast Corporation. "Comcast is committed to delivering
programming that reflects the interests of our customers, and we look forward
to integrating these great networks into our rich programming line-up."
African-American
Category:
Aspire: Spearheaded by
Entrepreneur and NBA Hall of Famer Earvin "Magic" Johnson, in
partnership with GMC TV, Aspire is dedicated to delivering enlightening,
entertaining and positive programming to African-Americans families, including
movies, documentaries, short films, music, comedy, visual and performing arts,
and faith and inspirational programs. Aspire will celebrate the successes,
achievements and accomplishments of the African-American community and create
new opportunities for the next generation of African-American visionaries. The
network will launch by summer 2012. "Aspire will be a network that
encourages and challenges African-Americans to reach for their dreams and will
appeal to all generations. Aspire will celebrate our heritage, our
groundbreaking achievements and the fearless talent that has shaped American
culture. I'm most excited about Aspire creating opportunities for the new
voices, new visions and the next generation of storytellers," said Earvin
"Magic" Johnson.
REVOLT: Proposed by superstar
and entrepreneur Sean "Diddy" Combs and MTV veteran Andy Schuon, this
network is designed to have programming inspired by music and pop culture,
including music videos, live performances, music news, and interviews and will
incorporate social media interaction for music artists and fans. The network
has entered into an agreement to 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."
Hispanic
Category:
El Rey: Proposed by legendary
Hollywood director Robert Rodriguez and FactoryMade Ventures executives John
Fogelman and Cristina Patwa, this network is designed to be an action-packed,
general entertainment network in English for Latino and general audiences that
includes a mix of reality, scripted and animated series, movies, documentaries,
news, music, comedy, and sports programming. The El Rey network will include
programming that features Hispanic producers, celebrities and public figures.
The network has entered into an agreement to launch by January 2014. "This
partnership with Comcast signals an important moment for the Latino community
in this country -- we are passionate about creating a wildly entertaining
destination that we can be proud of by appealing to both Latino and mass market
audiences," said Robert Rodriguez and CEO of FactoryMade Ventures John
Fogelman. "We engineered El Rey to address a burgeoning opportunity to
deliver unique, high-quality and compelling content to a hard-to-reach
demographic and are excited to bring more opportunities to generations of
talent, storytellers and dreamers through this special partnership."
BabyFirst
Americas:
Proposed by Spanish language television veteran Constantino "Said"
Schwarz, this network is designed for infants, very young children, and their
parents, and emphasizes the importance of early development of verbal, math and
motor skills. The network has entered into an agreement to launch by April
2012. "We are thrilled to partner with Comcast and commend them for
recognizing the importance of quality education for young children,"
remarked Constantino "Said" Schwarz, CEO and Chairman BabyFirst
Americas. "BabyFirst Americas aims to bring the essential academic
building blocks for Kindergarten readiness into the home, making it accessible
for families all across the U.S."
Comcast made a series of voluntary public
interest commitments in connection with the NBCUniversal transaction, one of
which is to launch 10 new independently owned and operated networks over the
next eight years. Of the 10 networks, four will be majority African-American
owned, two will be majority American Latino owned, two will be operated by
American Latino programmers, and two will provide additional independent
programming. Ultimately, each of the 10 networks will be added on select
Comcast systems as part of the digital basic tier of service.
Source: Comcast Corporation
