A&E Networks

A&E Television Networks, LLC, d/b/a A&E Networks (stylized as A+E Networks) is an American broadcasting company that is a joint venture between Hearst Communications and Disney Media Networks, a business segment of The Walt Disney Company. The company owns several non-fiction and entertainment-based television brands, including its namesake A&E, History, Lifetime, FYI, and their associated sister channels, and holds stakes in or licenses their international branches.

Arts and Entertainment
A&E 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 (from ARTS) and Radio City Music Hall (Rockefeller Group) and RCA, then the parent of NBC (from Entertainment Channel). The company launched Arts & Entertainment Network, a cultural cable channel, on February 1, 1984.

In 1990, after having aired episodes of its original 1960's version, 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 (now including NBC in place of RCA after GE's purchase of the latter in 1986) 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.

The A&E company 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 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 (April 1996), the Nordic and Baltic regions with Modern Times Group (1997) and in Canada (1997).

Formerly only direct sales, A&E Home Video initiated a six-month trial in which Barnes & Noble would sell the "Biography" line in stores and becoming permanent in 1996. THC debuted in two other media in September 1996 with a radio program on ABC Radio Networks and Border 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 audio tape 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 (historytravel.com), 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.

AETN All Asia Networks was formed in April 2007 through a joint venture between A&E Television Networks and Malaysia's pay TV provider Astro Overseas Limited.

Acquisition of Lifetime, further developments
In August 2009, A&E Networks acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services, which at the time was 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 NBC Universal 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. AETN and Network 18 Group In August 2010 formed a joint venture (49/51%), AETN-18 India, which would first launch the History and Bio channels in India. In May 2011, A&E Television Networks changed its brand name to A+E Networks. A&E dropped TV as their brands had move beyond just the TV channel, while keeping Networks being contemporary to similar companies.

In July 2012, NBC confirmed plans to divest its 15.8% stake in A&E Networks by way of a share repurchase by A&E Networks, 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 July 2013, A+E Networks bought out Astro Overseas's stake in AETN All Asia Networks and renamed it to A+E Networks Asia.

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 TLC's early-2000's transition into a mainstream lifestyle channel.

A&E Networks Italy was established in December 2013, launching the local version of Crime & Investigation, as well as buying out the Italian version of History from its local partner, Fox International Channels.

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 rebranded 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 investments in November 2015 then a week later in December for about a direct 10% to assist in funding programming. 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 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.

In 2017, the company's non-fiction production unit A&E Originals signed Elizabeth Vargas to a first-look and production deal.

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. In April 2018, A&E Originals signed a first-look deal with former Fox News Channel anchor Gretchen Carlson to host three documentaries.

On November 6, 2018, the European Commission approved Disney's proposed acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets, but ordered A&E Networks UK 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.

Units

 * A+E Networks Consumer Products
 * A&E IndieFilms, documentary feature film division
 * A&E Films
 * A&E Networks Digital

Channels

 * A&E Group
 * A&E
 * Crime & Investigation
 * FYI
 * History Group
 * History
 * History en Español
 * Military History
 * Lifetime Entertainment Services
 * Lifetime
 * Lifetime Movies
 * Lifetime Real Women
 * Vice Media (10% stake)
 * Viceland
 * Telewest America (65.01% stake)

A+E Networks Home Entertainment
A+E Networks Home Entertainment is the home entertainment division of A+E Networks. It creates and distributes content from A+E Networks' channels included A&E, Biography & History branded products. It also distributes content it has acquired the rights to including hit American television series, British comedies, cult TV and sports programming.