“P. Diddy” and Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt get down on the news that the cable giant will be carrying the rapper’s new channel. (WireImage)
Sean “P. Diddy” Combs’ cable revolution is more of an evolution.
After months of negotiations, his yet-to-launch channel, Revolt TV, has reached an agreement with Time Warner Cable to offer the channel to some of its roughly 12 million subscribers. A source close to Revolt said the channel will get fees from Time Warner to carry the channel but wouldn’t say how much it would be paid.
Revolt already has an agreement to launch in around 10 million Comcast homes, as part of a deal Comcast struck with regulators to offer more minority-focused channels.
Revolt’s new distribution deal with TWC is a boost to its efforts to get advertisers on board with the music-themed channel.
“It is rare in this time to be able to get carriage and to get a company as prestigious as Time Warner to believe in you and to commit to you,” Combs told The Post.
He hyped Revolt yesterday at the Cannes Lions advertising festival, saying he wants to challenge MTV with a pop-culture channel that covers music like ESPN covers sports.
In pitching the channel to marketers, however, he may have hit a sour note when he let slip that he “hates watching commercials.”
Combs also suggested that his channel wouldn’t be right for all advertisers.
“It would be almost not right to get in a partnership with somebody when we know we can’t deliver the audience; the message isn’t going to resonate with our audience [of millennials],” he said.
“I think it’s a great idea, but there’s a lot of work to launch,” said Marc Morse, an ad buyer at RJ Palmer, adding that new channels need at least 15 million subscribers to attract interest from Madison Avenue.
A source said Revolt has been reaching out to bankers to drum up additional financial support for the channel. A spokesman for Revolt said the channel was fully funded for launch, which has been pushed from July to October.