e television networks llc type joint venture limited liability company industry mass media founded 1984 headquarters new york city new york key people nancy dubuc ceo 1 abbe raven chairman products home video services broadcasting & cable tv total equity 20 billion 2013 est. value 2 owner hearst 50 % disney abc television group 50 % 3 divisions a e networks international a e networks consumer products a e studios a e networks digital a e films a & e indiefilms a e networks home entertainment a & e network history network subsidiaries lifetime entertainment services vice media 20 % 4 website official website a & e networks stylized as a e networks is an american media company that owns a group of television channels available via cable & satellite in the u.s. and abroad . a & e stands for arts & entertainment . 5 the company is a joint venture between hearst and disney abc television group a unit of the disney media networks subsidiary of the walt disney company . contents 1 history 1.1 arts and entertainment 1.2 a & e networks 1.3 post lifetime entertainment merger 2 units 2.1 channels 2.2 a & e studios 2.2.1 filmography 2.3 a e networks international 2.3.1 a e networks latin america 2.3.2 a e networks uk 2.3.3 a e networks asia 2.3.4 a e networks india 2.4 a e networks home entertainment 3 see also 4 references 5 external links history edit arts and entertainment edit 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 & 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 . 5 6 in fall 1987 a & e began showing the 1960s series biography once a week in prime time which led the network to purchase the biography trademark and library and order the commissioning of new biography episodes beginning in 1990 . in 1991 the company launched the a & e monthly general entertainment magazine which had a program guide . 5 the company indicated that plans for a history channel were in the works in 1993 and purchased the lou reda productions documentary library and long term rights for the hearst entertainment documentaries archive . 5 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 with nbc owning 25 % and the other two 37.5 % each . 6 also that month a new production unit was set up . 5 a & e networks edit 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. 5 the a & e company launched the history channel thc on january 1 1995 with its u.k. counterpart following on november 1 in partnership with british sky broadcasting . a & e networks considered thc 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 . 5 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 debut in two other medias in september 1996 with a program on abc radio networks and border books stocking thc videos . 5 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 . 5 thc expanded in 1998 into tours of u.s. landmarks with mayflower tours having an affiliated website historytravel.com a show history channel traveler and a planned quarterly magazine . while in october thc and madison square garden network teamed up to produce several short form sports history programs . 5 a e spun out its first 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 . 5 aetn all asia networks was formed on april 2007 through a joint venture between a & e television networks and malaysia s pay tv provider astro overseas limited . 7 post lifetime entertainment merger edit this section contains embedded lists that may be better presented using prose . you can help by converting the list or lists to prose if appropriate . editing help is available . july 2015 learn how and when to remove this template message in august 2009 a & e tv 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 nbcuniversal 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 . 1 8 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 . 9 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 . 10 in july 2012 nbcuniversal confirmed plans to divest its 15.8 % stake in a e networks by way of a share repurchase by a e making disney and hearst 50 50 partners in the joint venture . 3 in august 2012 a e switched distribution for their original series and movies from new video group to lionsgate home entertainment . 11 the bio channel has been stagnating since before a e s 2013 upfront presentation as little focus was placed upon it . for 2013 bio was generating 12 cents per subscribers from the video providers which is half the industry average . after tweaking the three main a e channels focus bio averaged viewers of 91 000 adults 25 54 in prime compared to what a & e 716 000 and history 703 000 averaged over the same period . 12 with an early june 2013 promotion to a & e networks ceo nancy dubuc launched a new in house production unit a & e studios and created three new executive vice president and general managers to manage history h2 a & e and lifetime and a president for bio and lmn . 2 dubic s priority was to revamp or turn around the various channels . with the bio lmn president jana bennett having changed tlc from a learning to a lifestyle programming was considered an indication that adding a lifestyle channel to the a e portfolio was a possibility . an additional opening in the genre occurred as the style channel became the men s channel esquire network . also not all international bio channels or platforms will switch over to the fyi programming for example bio . was rebranded as lifetime in the uk and latin america and as a & e in europe and africa . 13 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 . 7 on december 8 & 9 2013 three a e channels lifetime a & e and history simulcasted bonnie & clyde miniseries with each pulling in 3 3.7 million viewers for the first night for a total of 9.8 million viewers with nielsen s socialguide rank it the most talked about non sports subject and topped google trends . 14 in december 2013 a e networks announced that the biography channel will be rebranded as fyi a contemporary lifestyle network on july 8 2014 . 15 16 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 the vice channel with an indicated early 2016 launch . 17 director spike jonze vice s creative director is overseeing the development of the new 24 hour channel . 18 disney also made 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 . 19 units edit a e networks consumer products a & e studios a & e indiefilms documentary feature film division a & e films a & e networks digital channels edit a e networks own and operate 3 cable networks with ten television channels a & e network a & e crime & investigation network fyi history network history history en espa ol military history lifetime entertainment services lifetime lmn lifetime real women 1 other viceland a & e studios edit a & e studios stylized as a e studios is the company s in house scripted production division . a & e networks formed the studio in june 2013 under president bob debitetto . 2 at mipcom in october 2014 international executive vice president sean cohan and debitetto launched a & e studios international as a distribution and financing unit to distribution a & e studios productions . 20 filmography edit unreal ten hour series sons of liberty miniseries 20 a e networks international edit a e networks international is the international division of a e networks which handles international operations outside the u.s. mostly through joint ventures . a & e is an associate member of the caribbean cable & telecommunications association 21 and the caribbean cable cooperative . 22 a e networks latin america edit a e networks latin america is a joint venture between a e networks international and ole communications . the company started in 1996 when a & e expanded into latin america as mundo ol a joint venture between a & e television networks and hbo latin america group with the biography series . in 2000 the word ol was dropped causing mundo ol to become mundo . the next year mundo was renamed to a & e mundo but continued airing the biography series . the channel was renamed once more as a & e in 2005 . back in 1992 history latin america was launched as tvquality . it continued to use that name until 2000 when it became the history channel . from 2008 it is still history since then . the biography channel was launched in latin america in 2007 ; however when the us bio . network became fyi in 2014 the latin american network is now h2 since then . thus lifetime latin america was launched at the start of july 2014 as a joint venture between a e networks latin america and sony pictures television latin america replacing sony spin a sony owned latin american cable network that was