A&E will continue to explore the legacy of Playboy and those that it affected in the second season of its original docuseries, Secrets of Playboy, which debuts July 10.

Following the early 2022 run of the docuseries’ first season, which drew more than 18 million viewers according to A&E, season two of the series will examine the ripple effects for those that were involved with Playboy and its founder Hugh Hefner during the company’s heyday, according to the network. 

Given the appeal of the first season, series director and executive producer Domini Hofmann said she was surprised at the divisiveness the first season produced among some who viewed it. 

“I was surprised by the very strong, divisive reactions,” Hofmann, who was not involved in the production of the series' first season, said. “People were either in solidarity with season one or unhappy with it. What I learned through the process is just how strong people’s feelings and opinions are about Playboy, about Hugh Hefner and, most importantly, about nude women.”

While the first season dove into the often controversial history of Playboy and Hefner, Hofmann said the second season will focus more on the cultural legacy of the Playboy empire. The series will look at how the Playboy experience continued to affect women’s lives long after they finished posing for the magazine through never-before-seen interviews with Playmates and Playboy models. 

“The first season really talked a lot about things that happened within the company and at the Playboy Mansion,” she said. “We certainly talk about all of that, but we really broadened the lens and dive into what has gone on outside the mansion and outside the nucleus.” 

Hofmann said she’s not concerned about comparisons between the two seasons, nor is she worried about potential criticisms surrounding the upcoming season. “You can’t make everybody happy all of the time,” she said. “I’d rather focus on letting the women share their stories as they happen versus worrying about what people may think of those stories.” 

Along with Hofmann, Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, Devon Graham-Hammonds, Rebekah Fry and Matt Shanfield are executive producers of Secrets of Playboy, which is produced by The Intellectual Property Corp.

Veteran programming executive and former History Channel president Jana Bennett died Thursday at 66.

Bennett, in a 2019 interview with The Evening Standard, revealed that she was suffering from a brain tumor and was supporting research focusing on the disease.  

Bennett served as History Channel’s president and general manager from 2015 to 2017, overseeing the production of such hit series as Roots and Vikings. Named as a Multichannel News Wonder Woman in 2017, Bennett originally joined A+E Networks in 2013 to oversee the rebrand of BIO into FYI. Bennett also oversaw operations for TLC in the late 1990s.

Prior to A+E, Bennett ran British-based BBC Worldwide from 2010 to 2012, part of a multi-decade stint at the BBC. 

“All of us at A+E Networks deeply mourn the loss of our friend and colleague Jana Bennett,” Paul Buccieri, president & chairman, A+E Networks said in a statement. “Jana had an extraordinary career in media and her contributions to the A+E Networks family are too enormous to count. She was a groundbreaking, game-changing, generous and beautiful person. She will be terribly missed by all of us, and especially by me. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family at this time.” ■ 

A+E Networks has contracted with Comcast-owned advanced advertising unit FreeWheel to unify the decisioning engine behind its linear direct-buy and programmatic inventories.

Typically, when a viewer streams a show on an A+E channel like Lifetime or History, the “publisher” (A+E) has to balance programmatic bids with buys conducted directly through the individual cable networks.

But there are instances when a unified platform helps. For example, a programmatic buyer’s commercial might deliver more revenue than direct client ad, but it might make more sense for the publisher to deliver the direct-buy ad because it will fulfill audience guarantees tied to the direct-buy campaign.

Or, perhaps bringing in an ad procured from the programmatic “data-driven” side will solve a frequency issue with viewers seeing too many of the same ads.

According to Ad Exchanger, programmatic is being put on equal footing with direct-buy mainly because CPM prices—which had differed by 15-20%— have reached a level of parity.

“Holistic decisioning across sales channels helps buyers, sellers and the industry as a whole by reducing marketplace friction,” said Dave Clark, general manager of FreeWheel, in a joint announcement of the partnership. “Our pioneering work with A+E Networks focuses on uniting their various video sales channels to help them make the best choices for all advertisers, regardless of how the ads are purchased. This work parallels and enhances FreeWheel’s overarching efforts to offer holistic, cross-screen ad management across all video, from digital and OTT, to linear TV.”

“We are focused on two key priorities: creating and maintaining a viewer experience that leads to loyalty within our consumers, and delivering an optimal ad experience for our advertising clients and partners,” added Jason DeMarco, VP of programmatic and audience solutions at A+E Networks. “FreeWheel’s Unified Ad Management allows A+E Networks to maximize both of these efforts within our digital footprint by improving ad frequency and combining the benefits of programmatic buying with the assurances of compliance and standards of quality.”

Longtime A+E Networks executive Jana Bennett will leave her post as head of History, the company confirmed Friday.

Bennett, who was named History president and general manager in 2015, will leave to focus on a new entrepreneurial venture that will split her time between New York and London, according to A+E CEO Nancy Dubuc, who added the Bennett approached her this past spring about leaving the company.

Bennett, who was named a Multichannel News 2017 Wonder Women, joined A+E Networks in 2013 to help rebrand BIO into FYI before moving into the History position. 

“I am enormously grateful for the leadership, passion and commitment she has brought to A+E Networks," said Dubuc in a statement. "Please join me in wishing Jana all the best in her new endeavor." 

In a statement, Bennett said that while the decision to leave was “difficult,” she said it was time to start the next chapter in her life. “I am confident that History will go from strength to strength and will continue to tell stories that America and the rest of the world loves.”

 Below is Dubuc’s memo regarding Bennett’s departure:

Nearly four years ago, Jana Bennett moved from London and joined A+E Networks to launch FYI. This spring, Jana came to me and told me that she wanted to split her time between London and NY and start a new entrepreneurial venture aimed at creating the best of British and American content for both markets.

I’m immensely grateful for the amazing job she has done here at A+E Networks. From launching FYI to wide acclaim, to growing LMN, to leading HISTORY back into growth and securing its position as a premium brand, Jana has been a valued member of the Management Team.

Over the last two years at HISTORY, Jana has built a strong lineup of historical documentary series and boosted its scripted slate, successfully launching ROOTS and SIX. She has helped build a powerful pipeline of other new series, and with the very promising Knightfall coming later this year, is making HISTORY the destination for historically based drama.

Our company has benefited from the many formats and series developed under her watch includingMarried at First Sight, Seven Year Switch, the Tiny House franchise and Escaping Polygamy.

 I am enormously grateful for the leadership, passion and commitment she has brought to A+E Networks. Please join me in wishing Jana all the best in her new endeavor.

DirecTV Now continues to rack up carriage deals in the months leading to its upcoming launch, the latest with A+E Networks.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but in a statement A+E Networks said its channels – A&E, Lifetime, History, LMN, FYI and Viceland will all be available to DirecTV Nowcustomers.

“We are thrilled to team up with AT&T to offer our brands on the DirecTV Now platform at launch,” said A+E Networks president, distribution David Zagin in a statement. “It’s exciting for A+E Networks to continue to be at the leading front of the technology evolution. DirecTV Now will offer consumers a new way of receiving our content giving our viewers access to our strong portfolio of entertainment brands.” 

As its fourth quarter launch nears, DirecTV Now has reached a flurry of carriage agreements this month alone. Other deals in September were made with Scripps Networks,Discovery Communications,Turner, and NBC Universal. At the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference, AMC Networks CEO Josh Sapan said all of its networks will be part of the DirecTV Now package. In a Securities & Exchange Commission filing Thursday, Starz said it reached a multiplatform deal with AT&T, including DirecTV Now, on Sept. 17. The streaming service had reached previous deals with Disney, HBO and Cinemax.

“A+E Networks is a welcome addition to the DirecV Now platform,” AT&T chief content officer Dan York said in a statement.  “Customers of our new streaming service will have a wide array of programming choices they can access within minutes by just downloading the app and signing up.” 

DirecTV Now, launching in the fourth quarter of this year, will offer customers access to more than 100 channels, including live and on-demand programming from top networks, as well as premium add-on options. AT&T and DirecTV customers will be able to access and stream the service over a wired or wireless Internet connection using a variety of connected devices without requiring additional hardware, satellites, long-term contracts or credit checks.

It’s official: A+E Networks will team with online global company Vice Media to create a new 24-hour channel with a working title of Viceland.

Viceland will take over A+E Networks outlet H2 in early 2016 and re-launch to approximately 70 million homes, said A+E officials. The network is currently in 74 million homes, per Nielsen.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Published reports have said the Walt Disney Co. – which owns A+E Networks along with Hearst Corp. – will also invest in the channel. A&E last year invested $250 million for a 10% share in Vice Media.

The network, which had been rumored about since early spring, provides A+E Networks with a millennial-targeted channel to complement its older-skewing services Lifetime, History and A&E. 

“Vice has a bold voice and a distinctive model in the marketplace," Nancy Dubuc, president and CEO of A+E Networks, said in a release. “This channel represents a strategic fit and a new direction for the future of our portfolio of media assets.”

For Vice, the deal provides the online company with a linear cable service, providing the company with another platform to distributed its original content, according to Shane Smith, Vice co-founder and CEO.

“This network is the next step in the evolution of our brand and the first step in our global roll-out of networks around the world,” Smith said. “First: It allows us to be truly platform agnostic and enable our audience to view our content wherever they want. Second: It represents a continued growth in our content quality and raises the ceiling even higher for our brilliant teams to attack stories from long form features to multi-episode series and even short form interstitials that will challenge the accepted norms of current TV viewing. Third: We will test new and innovative monetization strategies placing Viceland at the pointy tip of the spear of the rapidly changing terrain of TV advertising."

A+E Networks will oversee technical operations and distribution and will work with Vice on ad sales and sponsorships. Vice will also handle all marketing across all platforms, utilizing its various relationships with partners across mobile and digital. 

Director and Vice partner Spike Jonze will oversee production of the channel, which will feature hundreds of hours of original programming produced by Vice. New primetime shows slates for Viceland include Gaycation (with Ellen Page and Ian Daniel), Huang’s World (with Eddie Huang), Noisey (with Zach Goldbaum), Vice World Of Sports (with Sal Masekela), Black Market (with Michael K. Williams), Flophouse, Party Legends and Weediquette (with Krishna Andavolu). Jonze, Smith and other Vice officials had previewed the lineup for reporters and advertisers in May at a Newfronts event, before Vice was ready to confirm publicly the plans for the network. At the time, Vice merely said, optimistically, the shows were "coming this fall." 

CHICAGO – A+E Networks president and CEO Nancy Dubuc said the key to success in the linear and non-linear content landscape is providing branded content where and when the viewer wants it. At the closing General Session at INTX: The Internet & Television Expo here Thursday she added that can be a mixture of both short-form and long-form shows.

“We believe in our brands and the service we provide to consumers,” Dubuc said. “We are constantly reiterating our brands, constantly reacting to consumer tastes.”

Dubuc said that surprisingly, there is very little overlap between A+E’s non-linear and linear programming, adding that its online content isn’t necessarily geared toward driving viewers back to the traditional cable channel.

“We’re marketers,” Dubuc said. “We are going to go to the platform where we can create a branded platform for our viewers.”

Dubuc wouldn’t comment on plans to give online pioneer Vice its own A+E channel. She said that A+E is an investor in the content provider, but wouldn’t comment further.

“I hope Shane [Smith, Vice founder] gets his own channel,” she said.

Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor said his company approaches online video differently, selling individual content to users in long and short-form chunks for varying prices. Vimeo is launching a subscription VOD offering soon but it will be only for individual channels.

“We’re seeing the viewer diet evolve in real time,” Trainor said. “We see people are consuming longer form pieces of content, and with the launch of Vimeo on Demand, feature length films, documentaries, episodics; everything from single minutes to close to a half hour.”

Pencil has announced a new addition to the board of directors, Abbe Raven, Chairman of A+E Networks.

Raven has worked with high school students for the past 10 years, prepping them for television opportunities. A+E Networks is a part of Pencil Fellows, which is a job training program for high school students.

“As a visionary business leader, former teacher and longtime Pencil supporter, Abbe has a deep understanding of the power of Pencil’s models of school-business collaboration to prepare today’s students for college and careers,” said Pencil Board of Directors Chair, Howard Chatzinoff, a partner at Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP. “Throughout her career, Abbe has channeled her passion for education to develop groundbreaking television programming."

Raven is a long-standing employee at A+E, with more than 30 years of experience.

“It’s been a privilege to work with Pencil over the past decade to use my business and leadership experience to help today’s students succeed,” said Raven. “Now, more than ever, education must equip students for the world beyond the four walls of their school. As a proud product of New York City public schools, I am honored to be joining Pencil’s board of directors to help students realize their dreams for continued education and for succeeding in today’s competitive marketplace.”

Recognized as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business by Fortune and one of the Top 5 Most Powerful Women in Entertainment, Raven has also been noted for running one of the most successful media businesses today.

A+E Networks has reached a carriage renewal deal with Dish network that includes OTT multi-straming rights for live and video on demand content, the companies announced Tuesday.

The renewal applies to the entire suite of A+E Networks’ channels, including A&E, Lifetime, History LMN, FYI, H2, History En Español, Crime + Investigation and Military History.

The new OTT rights allow access to A+E Networks’ content through a future multi-stream subscription service of linear and VOD content.  The content will be available to customers looking for access to A+E content online.

“We have had a great partnership with Dish for many years and we are delighted that this renewal will carry our partnership well into the future,” said Nancy Dubuc, President and CEO, A+E Networks. “We are thrilled that Dish's valued customers will be able to enjoy A+E Networks’ award-winning portfolio of brands across their multiple platforms. We continue to grow and make significant investments in new brands, and as such, we’re particularly pleased with the expanded distribution of FYI and H2.”