A+E Global Media
A&E Television Networks, LLC, doing business as A+E Global Media is an American multinational broadcasting company owned and operated as a 50–50 joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Walt Disney Company through the General Entertainment Content unit of its Entertainment division. It owns several non-fiction and entertainment-based television brands, including A&E, History Channel, Lifetime, FYI and their associated sister channels, as well as holding stakes in, or licenses, their international branches.
History
was formed from the merger of the Alpha Repertory Television Service and the Entertainment Channel, a premium cable channel, in 1984 with their respective owners keeping stakes in the new company. Thus A&E's shareholders were Hearst and ABC and Radio City Music Hall and RCA, then the parent of NBC. The company launched A&E, at the time known as the Arts & Entertainment Network, on February 1, 1984, as a block on Nickelodeon to fill in the time slot that ARTS held, as ARTS was a block on Nick. In 1985, the partners spun off A&E into its own 24 hour channel, and Nickelodeon later created Nick at Nite to fill in the time slot that A&E formerly held.In 1990, after having aired episodes of its original 1960's version starting in 1987, A&E acquired rights to, and started producing new episodes of, the documentary series Biography— which became the channel's flagship program. The network also introduced its own companion magazine A&E Monthly.
The company indicated that plans for a history channel were in the works in 1993; it purchased the Lou Reda Productions documentary library and long-term rights for the Hearst Entertainment documentaries archive. In June 1993, the Rockefeller Group's Radio City Music Hall sold its 12.5% stake in A&E to the other three partners with NBC owning 25% and the other two 37.5% each. Also that month, a new production unit was set up.
A&E Networks
The A&E channel expanded to Canada, and later Mexico from 1993 to 1994. Biography began airing 5 nights a week in 1994. Also in 1994, A&E, on its 10th anniversary, changed its name from Arts and Entertainment to A&E.A&E Networks launched the History Channel on January 1, 1995, with its UK counterpart following on November 1 in partnership with British Sky Broadcasting. A&E Networks considered History to be the driver in international expansion due to a lack of international rights to A&E international co-productions. As expected, the History Channel led A&E's overseas expansion in Brazil with TVA, the Nordic and Baltic regions with Modern Times Group, and in Canada. By 1997, the company had started its AETN International division.
Formerly only direct sales, A&E Home Video initiated a six-month trial in which Barnes & Noble would sell the "Biography" line in stores, which became permanent in 1996. THC debuted in two other media in September 1996 with a radio program on ABC Radio Networks and Borders Books stocking THC videos.
The 'Biography' franchise continued to expand with a website in July 1996, a children's version launched in fall 1996, an audiotape line in 1997, telefilm development, a Crown published short biography line and debuted its magazine which replaced A&E Monthly. During the 1998–1999 season, Biography: American Justice and Biography Movies debuted.
History expanded in 1998 into tours of U.S. landmarks with Mayflower Tours having an affiliated website, History Channel Traveler, and a planned quarterly magazine. While in October, History and MSG Network teamed up to produce several short-form sports history programs.
A+E spun out its two digital cable channels in November 1998 with The Biography Channel and History Channel International from A&E and the History Channel. A&E was spending $10 million per year to convert to the digital format and for digital distribution. With the need to revive a battered channel, improve the brand and create strong content for the A&E channel, A&E executive started the A&E IndieFilms division in 2005.
Post-Lifetime acquisition
In August 2009, A&E Networks acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services, which at the time was also jointly owned by Disney and Hearst, each with 50% ownership. Following the deal, Disney and Hearst each held approximately 42% of the combined company, while NBCUniversal retained approximately 16%. The deal included mechanisms by which NBCU could choose, or alternatively be forced to, exit the partnership over the subsequent 15 years. In May 2011, A&E Television Networks rebranded as "A+E Networks"; the new name was intended to signify its expansion towards other platforms besides television.In July 2012, NBCUniversal confirmed plans to divest its 15.8% stake in A+E Networks by way of a share repurchase, making Disney and Hearst 50-50 partners in the joint venture. In August 2012, A+E announced that Lionsgate Home Entertainment had acquired the home video distribution rights to its content, replacing New Video.
With an early June 2013 promotion to A+E Networks CEO, Nancy Dubuc launched a new in-house production unit, A&E Studios, and hired veteran BBC executive Jana Bennett to serve as the president of Biography Channel and LMN.
In December 2013, in response to stagnating viewership in comparison to its sister networks, it was announced that the Biography Channel would be re-launched as FYI, a lifestyle-oriented network, in 2014. The channel's new president, Jana Bennett, had previously overseen The Learning Channel's early-2000s transition into a mainstream lifestyle channel.
In August 2014, A+E took a 10% stake in Vice Media for $250 million. The company then announced in April 2015 that H2 would be re-branded into a Vice channel with an indicated early 2016 launch. Director Spike Jonze, Vice's creative director, is overseeing the development of the new 24-hour channel. Disney also made a direct investment in Vice Media with two $200 million investments in November 2015 then a week later in December for about a direct 10% to assist in funding programming. In May 2016, the company signed an international distribution deal with Pulse Films, and its East Entertainment formats and entertainment company.
A+E Networks took an equity stake at the March 2015 formation of an independent TV production company, Propagate Content, run and owned by CEO Howard T. Owens and chief creative officer David McKillop, former A&E channel general manager. The development team led by Daniel Suratt had the company also investing in Epic Magazine, Samba and Panna food app-based content company in December 2015. Sean Cohan was promoted from head of international division to president of international and digital media in December 2015 as Suratt, head of digital media & business development, was promoted to president of corporate development, strategy and investments.
The company formed an in-house advertising agency, 45th & Dean, under executive vice president and general manager of FYI Network Paul Greenberg in May 2016. In February 2017, A+E's in-house ad agency, 45th and Dean, was planning on developing new shows for Snapchat's Discover platform.
The Digital Media division launched its first direct to consumer streaming service, Lifetime Movie Club, in September 2015. Then in February 2016, the division launched another service, History Vault, followed by its Canadian version in November with Corus. Both have content at least a year off their respective channels. Club offers a rotating group of 40 films from the Lifetime library, while Vault has 400 documentaries at any one time.
The new Vice channel, branded as Viceland, launched on September 19, 2016. The next day, A+E Networks UK launched Blaze, a new free-to-air channel carrying programming aimed towards adult males.
2017–2024
In March 2017, the company invested in a Series A funding round for Beautycon. A&E led a Series A funding round for Atlas Obscura in mid-2017. AETN in November 2017 took a substantial minority stake in Dan Abrams's LawNewz Network live court content website, which then renamed its website to Law&Crime Network.In 2017, A+E Networks took a 25% equity stake in the National Women's Soccer League, as part of a three-year media rights deal that saw Lifetime carry a package of weekly NWSL matches, and become a sleeve sponsor for all NWSL players. In February 2019, A+E ended the pact early and returned its 25% equity in the league, while continuing Lifetime's sleeve sponsorship.
In the second quarter of 2017, A+E Networks relaunched the Biography franchise with a set of two-hour specials and a miniseries for three of its channels, A&E, History and Lifetime. The franchise's TV programming will be recurring multi-formatted and tie into important anniversaries, newly found information about notables and current news. The initial set has the commonality of being crime centered, with at least one future set would focus on notable women. A+E Networks held its first convention, Alien Con, October 28–30, 2016 in partnership with Cosmic Con as an extension of the History channel's Ancient Aliens TV series.
In March 2018, Dubuc resigned as CEO. A+E called back former CEO Abbe Raven to be interim CEO. Paul Buccieri was promoted from president of A&E Studios and A+E Networks Portfolio Group to A&E President in July 2018. Buccieri formed the A&E Originals unit for unscripted series. This was followed by three first look deals with Leah Remini, Elizabeth Vargas and Gretchen Carlson. Vargas would serve as anchor of its A&E Investigates banner.
On November 6, 2018, the European Commission approved Disney's proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets, but ordered A+E Networks International to divest certain factual television networks in the European Economic Area that overlap with the Fox assets being acquired, including Blaze, Crime & Investigation, History, H2, and Lifetime. A+E Networks launched its first OTT channel, Lively Place, through Wurl on Samsung TV Plus in December 2019.
A+E Networks sold several programs into the Latin American and US Hispanic markets in January 2019. This a part of attempt to offset declines in US basic cable business with sales to expanding markets like Latin America. A+E Networks agreed to a first-look development and production deal with Ozy Media in January 2020 for potential maker for A&E, History and Lifetime flagship cable channels.
In February 2020, the company started its A&E Crime Central streaming service. The service has from the company's major channel libraries some 900 crime series and specials available. That year, it also licensed selected programs from the A&E and History libraries to NBCUniversal's new streaming service Peacock.
In June 2021, A+E Networks acquired a 35% stake in Canadian studio Reel One Entertainment—one of the independent producers of Lifetime's television films—from Groupe TF1 subsidiary Newen.
On April 3, 2024, A+E Networks partnered with Warner Bros. Discovery/Starz Entertainment Corp./Gray Media-owned Free TV Networks to become joint owners in a broadcast network called Defy, which was formerly owned by the E. W. Scripps Company's Scripps Networks division.