Abbe Raven

January 15, 2010 World Screen

With its mission statement, “Every day, we grab people everywhere with our entertaining take on life,” A&E Television Networks (AETN) serves viewers in more than 125 countries with channels and programming in the drama, reality and factual genres. The company has some of the most recognized brands in television, including A&E, History and Bio, and last year it acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services, adding strong female-skewing channels and websites to AETN’s portfolio.

Abbe Raven, AETN’s president and CEO, began her career in cable television in 1982 in the production department of Daytime and Arts, a precursor to the A&E network. She went on to head The History Channel and then A&E. In 2005, Raven took over as president and CEO of AETN from Nickolas Davatzes, just as viewers were starting to take control of their entertainment experience with their preference for watching programming at their convenience. She understood the importance of staying ahead of this trend and has not only ensured the robust development of AETN’s websites and online content, she has also made sure that viewers can access AETN programming in a variety of ways. While always watching out for the distribution opportunities offered by new screens and devices, she never took her eye off the company’s core strength—programming.
 
History continues to be the leading destination for viewers who want original nonfiction series and event-driven specials, such as the ten-hour series WWII in HD and the upcoming America: The Story of Us, from the acclaimed Emmy Award-winning producer/director Jane Root.
 
A&E offers a diverse mix of quality entertainment, ranging from the signature “Real-Life” series franchise, which includes Intervention, The First 48 and, more recently, The Jacksons: A Family Dynasty, to critically acclaimed original movies, dramatic series and the most successful justice shows on cable.
 
AETN’s other brands include Bio, History International, Crime & Investigation Network and Military History.
 
Raven also oversees teams that have launched many of these brands around the globe, that sell AETN programming internationally and that develop and market consumer products.
 
An anomaly in an industry that is constantly changing, Raven has been with AETN her entire television career. She talks to World Screen about her passion for the company, its programming and its people.
 
WS: A&E Television Networks (AETN) recently acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services. What can you tell us about the combined company?
RAVEN: It’s a very exciting time for us. AETN has been a leading global media company with quality programs. Our advantage has been that we have always owned the majority of our programming. We, therefore, have been fortunate enough to control our own destiny as a content provider, both domestically and internationally. So with the combination of AETN and Lifetime we now have the potential to expand even further. The Lifetime brands really present us with new opportunities and new potential for growth in the international marketplace. Lifetime has begun to build a strong library of great original programming, and what this all does is make the new AETN a content powerhouse. We now have a strong portfolio of brands, and by pulling together under one roof more creative thinking and a broader platform [we] really increase our opportunities with our advertisers and with our affiliates.
 
WS: How do the brands complement each other?
RAVEN: The brands truly complement each other because History attracts upscale men, Lifetime is a strong female brand and A&E goes after a dual audience. So the beauty of this is we are not cannibalizing our viewership but actually offering a very strong portfolio of demographics. In many ways, we’ll be one-stop shopping.
 
We have always attracted women to A&E and to The Biography Channel, which we call Bio, but now we’ll have a very strong direct connection to women. We will have a great deal of cross-platform marketing opportunities between A&E, Lifetime and Bio. We will have the opportunity to reach women across our 20 websites and all of our domestic channels.
 
WS: AETN makes its programming available to viewers in a variety of ways. Why is it important to get the programming on a lot of platforms?
RAVEN: We have worked very closely with our distribution partners to strike the right balance. We believe in delivering programming to our viewers on the platform of their choice. It’s a great marketing opportunity for us. When we put out our programming on iTunes or on DVD we find that really does bring people’s interest back to the core channel—it brings them back to the TV screen. The other thing about iTunes is that it attracts a younger audience to our brands and builds the relationship we have with them and ultimately brings them back to the television screen.
 
WS: How does VOD play into your strategy? Some people say that eventually everything will be on demand.
RAVEN: We happen to have been one of the very first to the table with our distribution partners on VOD—they came to us and we were very responsive. As a content company our strategy has always been to provide our viewers with programming on the platforms that they enjoy, and VOD clearly is a model that really works for them. So we have embraced it. I think it’s too early to declare linear channels going away. I still absolutely believe that appointment television is here to stay. We just had an overwhelming success with WWII in HD for five nights; people came to it. It was a subject that people were interested in and they clearly made the time to find it and watch it.
 
WS: Cable channels in the U.S. have weathered the advertising downturn better than the broadcast networks. How have you been working with advertisers?
RAVEN: Cable has always been about innovation, so for the past 20 years cable has been driving the TV business in creativity. We have been working with our advertising partners to find creative ways to get their messages across. The beauty of our relationship with advertisers, especially in the cable universe, is that we can clearly identify our audience and target a demographic that advertisers want. So whether advertisers are looking for the upscale men that History provides, or a pure female audience that Lifetime delivers, we have the ability to customize spots, create integration opportunities, share creative execution and deliver a message on multiple platforms. So we’ve continued to nurture that special relationship with the advertiser—make it easy for them and provide the right platforms.
It’s all about branding and quality and to also deliver on what you promise. Our relationship has always been one of integrity and honesty, and that goes a long way.
 
WS: What opportunities do you see for growth in international markets?
RAVEN: There are multiple opportunities. One, our channels and our sales have grown significantly over the past few years and I believe we still have considerable growth ahead of us in the international marketplace. Lifetime clearly represents one key opportunity, taking this brand and its content out globally. We have seen strong interest in the Lifetime brand and in the women’s category since we announced the merger. History continues to be a powerhouse—not only our existing channels but also our content sales efforts around the globe. But I think there is still an upside and we are seeing demand from the international marketplace for our newer brands, like Crime & Investigation Network, Military History and all of our HD channels. Our goal is to expand to a full bouquet of channels in every territory along with branded services like VOD, broadband and mobile, and we look forward to those opportunities in the year ahead.
 
WS: What has been driving History’s success?
RAVEN: Number one, it’s a great platform. If you look across popular culture, history is everywhere, it’s the subject of films and novels and History has been at the forefront of that. It’s still extremely popular around the world [and offers] programs that can attract millions of people on a given night or over the course of a week. Like I said, WWII in HD is a great example of taking a traditional subject and making it more contemporary—of finding what could intrigue younger people about World War II. They hadn’t seen footage in color [or heard the stories told] in a new way and it’s also always about good storytelling. I think we’ve hit the nail on the head with the brand. History is all around us. History is made everyday. And we’ve embraced so many stories under the History umbrella and that has called out to a broader audience.
 
WS: You have a lot of off-screen initiatives that have also strengthened the brand.
RAVEN: We have really focused on ways to market our product and our brand and we have developed stronger websites that complement the networks, as well as relationships with organizations. History channel has a wonderful relationship with the Library of Congress. In addition our DVD business, download to own, and our off-net strategies have really helped broaden our reach and our successes.
 
WS: How has this relationship helped strengthen the History brand?
RAVEN: It attracts a younger audience and an audience that is looking for information. The relationship we’ve built with the Library of Congress has been able to draw people from our website into the archival material that is available at the Library of Congress and vice versa. Those kinds of relationships have brought newer people into our tent and ultimately brought them to the brand and to the channel.
 
WS: How have DVDs and consumer products been performing for AETN?
RAVEN: We’ve been lucky because our strategy has been to offer appropriate products to a wide consumer base. This also includes collectors who want to delve deeply into a subject, more so than a casual buyer. So that approach has been very successful during these challenging economic times. Consumers are looking for the best value for their dollar so that the collections have been an advantage for us. We’ve also been able to ramp up more of our DVD sales internationally. This year, for example, we established direct DVD distribution in the U.K. and Australia, and that’s been helpful. We’ve also seen a very healthy increase in our sell-through business: iTunes, Xbox and PlayStation. So having a more diversified distribution strategy has allowed us to handle a little bit of the slowdown that we have seen at the retail marketplace.