" IT'S SHOWTIME!!! "

" THE MAGIC DIDDY KINGDOM "

Magic Johnson is still quick off the dribble — even in the business world. Just four months after Comcast announced the NBA great would be one of four owners of new minority-focused stations guaranteed distribution in 8 million homes, Johnson’s Aspire channel is up and running. It has a staff, headquarters and programming. “Johnson was very smart, he did a lot of research,” a source told The Post.

“He’d been working on his plan for 18 months.” Aspire has signed L’Oreal and Nationwide as advertisers, bagged carriage with Time Warner Cable, bringing it to 10 million households by year’s end, and has handed ad sales to Atlanta-based Intermedia’s GMC TV.

It’s a different story at Revolt, another of the four Comcast-created channels, which is owned by P.Diddy, sources said. Revolt, with just six months before its scheduled debut in early 2013, is still trying to pin down a business model and a precise programming direction. Revolt President Andy Schuon, an experienced executive with a background at MTV and Live Nation, has yet to announce any key hires for the channel.

In a YouTube video, P.Diddy described the channel as a service for breaking new artists and expressed an aim to make it the No.1 music service in TV. “At Revolt, they’re trying to figure out how to do it economically,” said a source. “Little has been announced, other than it’s a music service — but you wouldn’t want to bet against P.Diddy’s marketing prowess given his success with Ciroc vodka.”

“But can it translate to TV?” he asked. Comcast, which agreed to get the four stations up and running as part of its deal with regulators when it bought NBCUniversal, also awarded channels to: Constantino Schwartz and his “Baby First America” and director Robert Rodriguez and his Latino-focused channel, “El Rey.” “The Revolt network is scheduled to launch in 2013 as planned,” said a spokesperson.

source:nypost/urbanmessmagazine