At a time when many larger programmers are cutting back, A+E Networks is telling advertisers it will deliver a slate of more than 2,500 hours of new multiplatform content in 2023-24, up from the 2,000 hours it promised last year.
In a virtual upfront presentation Wednesday, A+E put a spotlight on projects backed by big names, including Kevin Costner, Morgan Freeman, Bradley Cooper, Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Kelly Rowland, Keyshia Cole, Dan Aykroyd, Steve Austin, Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer.
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“Our goal within this media evolution is to meet audiences wherever and however they consume content, by working with great worldwide storytellers to develop and execute their vision,” Paul Buccieri, A+E Networks Group chairman, said. “Over the last four years, we have been on a journey to expand our production capabilities in both scripted and factual, and we’ve established key relationships in the talent management space as well as continued creating compelling content across our brands to further meet the needs of our valued partners and viewers.”
Buccieri singled out a project from A+E’s History Channel to mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence in 2026. “This initiative will be across all platforms and will highlight many lives and experiences — 250 voices across 50 states — to honor, acknowledge and reflect perspectives from our past and present, while giving our partners unique, premium opportunities to join us in this effort.”
At a time when cord-cutting is eroding linear viewerships, A+E has been expanding distribution of its content beyond cable. A+E didn’t start its own subscription streaming service. Instead, it launched a series of free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, ad sales president Peter Olsen told Broadcasting+Cable.
“We took a more measured approach to where the viewership was gong and it has paid off,” Olsen said. He said consumption of A+E content across all platforms was 4% higher in 2022 than in 2019, the year before the pandemic started.
“At a time when linear ratings are down and distribution is changing, people are finding it, and we think that’s the right approach until the industry finds its future,” he said.
The approach works with advertisers, who are shifting different fractions of their media budgets from linear TV to streaming. A+E will let clients take the lead. “Just tell us what your objectives are, what your challenges are, and we’ll do our best to solve your problems,” Olsen said. “Each client is learning different things about what’s actually driving their business. I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all in the streaming space, so you’re seeing a pretty wide variety on price points.”
Similarly, when it comes to measurement and currency, A&E is flexible. “We’re open to partnering with virtually any player if the deal makes sense,” he said. “Individual clients want things on different terms and we do it in that form. It’s not going to be a whole new currency in two months.”
Olsen said it was too soon to debate if this would be a buyer’s or a seller’s market. “We’re not going to hide from the fast that right now, short-term economics are weak,” he said. “But the upfront is a futures market, and most likely we will be recovering, and potentially rapidly recovering, when we turn the corner.”
Olsen said that A+E opted to again have a virtual presentation because it reaches more people. “Then we do a bunch of in-person stuff as needed,” he said. “We thought it was prudent and it’s been effective.”
Among the tentpole projects A+E shared with media buyers and clients was Kevin Costner’s The West for the History Channel, with the Oscar-winning actor and star of the Paramount Network hit Yellowstone teaming up with historian Doris Kearns Goodwin and Radical Media.
History also has FDR, executive produced by Goodwin and Bradley Cooper (see trailer below); Black Patriots: the 761st Battalion, executive-produced by Morgan Freeman; Five Families, executive-produced by Michael Imperioli; and The Unbelievable, with Dan Aykroyd.
Lifetime projects include Janet Jackson: Family First; TLC Forever (which will be simulcast on A&E); and a biopic about Keyshia Cole starring Keyshia Cole.
A&E is cooking up Kings of BBQ with Anthony Anderson and Cedric the Entertainer.
A+E’s Home.Made.Nation lifestyle brand has Legends of the Fork; Cake Dynasty and Cake Toppers with Buddy Valastro; and Rachael Ray Meals in Minutes. ■
