Disney and Hearst to Sell A&E, History, Lifetime, and More as Cable Landscape Shifts
But who is handling the sale? Could it be....aliens?
The parent company of A&E, Lifetime, and History (which is partially owned by Disney), is up for sale as other companies try to figure out their cable channel strategies.
What’s Happening:
- A+E Global Media, owned by Disney in a 50/50 joint venture with Hearst, is reportedly up for auction.
- This is the parent company of A&E Network, History, and Lifetime, as well as Lifetime Movie Network, FYI, and Vice TV. The assets also include content units A+E Studios, A+E Factual Studio, A&E IndieFilms, A+E Global Media Digital, as well as streaming apps, games, FAST Channels, AVOD and subscription services Crime 360, Lifetime Movie Club, and History Vault.
- Wells Fargo has been tapped to handle the sale process, and reports say there is no certainty that A+E Global Media will be sold entirely or in part. Disney and Hearst are motivated given recent market conditions to see who may come after A+E’s lifestyle and unscripted outlets.
- A+E Global Media channels have never been woven into Disney’s larger channel group (which includes ABC, FX, and Disney’s eight owned and operated ABC Stations) even as Disney has built out its streaming offerings. There’s been speculation for some time that the A+E channels would be part of a sales process.
- A&E Network, Lifetime and History have been an outlier in recent years of slashed programming on cable outlets. Lifetime in recent years has doubled down on its volume of original telefilms, where History has increased the production value and promotion around its marquee documentaries and series.
- The move to sell comes at a time when other companies, like NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) are also trimming their asset bases and spinning collections of their cable channels. NBCU is only keeping Bravo out of its eight channels to help fuel content for their streaming service, Peacock. WBD recently announced plans for a restructuring into two entities, one for Global Networks, and the other for Studios and Streaming.
- The A+E Brands could be attractive to either of these companies, including NBCU’s Versant, where they are spinning off their cable channels like USA Network, CNBC, and MSNBC. WBD’s separation would include their channels like CNN, TNT, TBS, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, and TruTV among others.
- Interestingly, for the first 20 years of A&E Networks, they were jointly owned by ABC, NBC, and Hearst. Back when NBCU was acquired by Comcast from General Electric in 2011, Comcast had to sell off their stake to comply with federal merger conditions.
Not So FrndlyTV:
- This move will likely leave subscribers of FrndlyTV, a popular service amongst cord-cutters, wondering what will happen to that platform.
- This is largely because this platform includes those A&E Networks and all their spin-offs. Not just A&E, History, Vice TV and Lifetime, but Lifetime Movie Network, Military History, and more.
- That said, earlier this year the service was acquired by Roku, allowing them to further expand into the realm of live television. However, the channels offered still remain the same as of press time.
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