MIPTV 2014 – CANNES. The past few months A+E Networks has made significant inroads into the UK, France, Russia and Italy.
After a few busy months, A+E will report more progress in several European markets, but the broadcaster is not yet ready to issue any specifics.
Talking to Broadband TV News, Dean Possenniski, MD EMEA at A+E Networks, said that the broadcaster has of finalised taking control of the Italian operation, formerly a joint venture with Fox International Channels.
“We had a good relationship with Fox, but since we are also competitors it was in both our interest to part ways.”
In close cooperation with Sky Italia, A+E has now launched its second channel in the market, C&I as the first real crime channel in the country, complete with local talent and formats.
The broadcaster is looking at rolling out a total of three to six channels in the country, all as pay channels with Sky.
In Russia, a wholly owned and operated subsidiary was started, with History as its first channel launch, now in five million households. A local management team is now being formed with the intention to launch a second channel anytime, which could be C&JI, H2 or Lifetime.
In France the launch of A+E in cooperation with Canal+/Planete was successful, The channel broadcasts a mix of French (40%), American (40%) and European (20%) programming.
The launch included a branding campaign built around the characters of Duck Dynasty.
In the UK, the broadcaster can look back to a great launch of Lifetime as well as record ratings for H2, which achieved a growth of 50% recently.
In terms of other platforms, A+E is active with TV Everywhere, catch-up TV and SVOD services, including those of Sky and UPC. “Because we own most of the rights, we can do these deals.”
Possenniski said the policy of premiering new series on its own channels and later licencing out to free-to-air broadcasters, works fine, resulting in better ratings for new series debuting on A+E channels after older episodes aired on local channels.
