Beverly Hills -- Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ upstart cable network Revolt TV has hired former ESPN executive Keith Clinkscales as its CEO, officials announced Friday during the Television Critics Association summer press tour.
Clinkscales, formerly senior vice president of ESPN Enterprises and head of content development for the sports network, oversees Revolt, which will feature music-themed content targeted to urban millennials. Revolt TV, one of the new minority-owned networks selected for broad distribution by Comcast as part of the FCC's conditions for the MSO's acquisition of NBCUniversal, is expected to launch in October with 25 million households. The network already has distribution deals with Comcast Cable and Time Warner Cable.
Combs told an assembled group of TV critics during a Revolt TV breakfast event here that said he wanted to initially buy an existing Comcast channel, but settled to launch his own service. He says the network will target milliennials that don’t have an outlet for music news and entertainment on cable.
“There wasn’t anything on television that was engaging and spoke directly to what was our number one interest, which is music,” he said.
