Johnson launches his black-family channel

Associated Press

NEW YORK

As the crowd counted down, Magic Johnson pulled a large, silver lever jutting from a box labeled “ASPiRE.”

With that, his new cable network went live.

Then stagehands whisked the contraption off the dais at Aspire’s gala premiere party Wednesday night.

The switch was just a prop, of course, connected to nothing.

But Magic Johnson’s ties to the African-American community are direct and strong. Now, the basketball great and business tycoon is leveraging his clout and good name to launch Aspire.

“We have a big platform for African-American work,” Johnson told the gathered.

“Family-driven content, positive images of African-Americans — that’s what we want that platform for!”

Big aspirations, indeed, as Aspire makes its debut. Initially, it’s available in about 7 million homes. It can be seen by some customers served by Time Warner Cable Inc. and by Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable operator.

Aspire’s reach will grow to 12 million homes by year’s end, to 20 million to 30 million homes by the end of 2013, and to 40 million homes within two years, according to Johnson.

“Focus groups told us African-Americans want more family content on TV,” he said a few hours before the party.

“If they would have told me, ‘We don’t need another channel; there’s not an opportunity for you,’ we wouldn’t be sitting here.”

He says Aspire will provide the sort of fare that everyone can gather in the living room to watch.