​BET, Viacom’s African-American targeted cable network, has seen its audience go from a median of 31 to 38 in just five years. In response to this change, the channel is planning a year of programming and stars aimed more at millennial viewers, a group BET execs feel are often misunderstood.

“There’s a gap in understanding African-American millennials,” said Vicky Free, CMO at BET.

Its content will expand this year from series like Kevin Hart’s “Real Husbands of Hollywood” to “The Start Up” with Diggy Simmons, son of Run DMC’s Rev. Run, and a talk show hosted by 20-year-old Keke Palmer, “The Keke Palmer Project,” which was announced earlier this week. This is added to its recent acquisitions like “The Real,” a daytime show hoping to target younger audiences than most talkers.

BET also presented research findings from a study on African-American millennials, focusing on lifestyles, media consumption and brand loyalty in the demographic.

On the other hand, Sean “Diddy” Combs thinks the term millennial is “whack.” His network, Revolt TV, joined the fray this week for its first upfront, with co-owner Combs saying “Millennial shit is whack. No one likes to be called that.” Instead, though Revolt is targeting similar audiences to BET’s, they’re choosing to call the demographic a general “young people.”

He reiterated during the upfront presentation that Revolt TV has aspirations of being for music what CNN is for news, stressing the importance of the network as a trendsetter for marketers to see what’s popular. The network, which launched last October, also debuted a new app with VOD, breaking news and digital series “Making the Brand” about the creation of Revolt.

Read more at Ad Age and Variety.

Brief Take: Both BET and Revolt are following in other networks’ footsteps in trying to attract millennial eyeballs, but it will be interesting to see which tactic works better: introducing stars on their level or eschewing the term “millennial” altogether.

[Image courtesy of BET]

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