Q&A: Sean Cohan

The company may have a new a name and logo—A+E Networks replaced A&E Television Networks—but the mission remains the same: reinventing storytelling, taking history out of the history books, developing new genres and creating new networks. A+E Networks’ channels and programs are now available in more than 150+ countries and 300+ million TV households. Sean Cohan, the senior VP of international, is spearheading the company’s efforts to distribute programs and channels around the world.

TV REAL: What level of quality and what type of subject matter have buyers come to expect from A+E Networks?
COHAN: We’re very excited about the recent rebranding of our portfolio to A+E Networks and our tag “Life Is Entertaining.” The visual execution of the rebrand is more creative, more colorful and in a lot of ways it speaks to what we are—we’re great storytellers, we’re entertainers and we tell stories in an authentic way. I’d like to think that what A+E Networks and our content means to buyers is authentic stories, great factual entertainment, and, at times, fiction that they can rely on. Buyers have come to expect quality and great storytelling and products that have tended to rate well and have generated a fair amount of buzz in the U.S. There are certain parts of the entertainment spectrum that we’ve become real experts in, character-based factual programming that is both informative and entertaining, such as Pawn Stars, Ice Road Truckers, etc. We still do a lot of documentaries and a lot of specials, but a lot of the character-driven programming is starting to take off.

TV REAL: And you have broadened your catalogue.
COHAN: Absolutely. The Lifetime channels and their content does increase the amount of product we have. Even on the HISTORY side the amount is going up. We’ve got a lot more stuff and we’re selling movies and more character-driven programming than we ever had before.

TV REAL: Internationally, is there curiosity to see regular people in really interesting situations or jobs or dilemmas?
COHAN: Done right, I believe there is a global curiosity for “everyday people” doing different kinds of things, there absolutely is. In some markets, whether you’re talking buyers or viewers, there may be an initial hesitation because these contexts are very foreign. Many people don’t know what a pawn shop is, or pawn shops are viewed in some places as seedy. But I think once people get over the initial sense of “I’m not going to be able to relate to that,” there is a curiosity around the items and the characters. There are different levers we can push and have pushed to make stories even more compelling for global audiences, with interesting and relatable characters.

TV REAL: Although your format business is growing, will finished product remain the backbone of your catalogue?
COHAN: Given the excellence of what the U.S. team does, the tremendous investment that they make in content, I think finished product will always be a driver, but over the last couple of years with the increasing innovation coming out of teams in the U.S. with the addition of Lifetime, there are more formatable properties. In turn, we’ve been able to do more format business—that is certainly a growth business for us. We have Intervention, which we’ve done formats for in several places, Celebrity Ghost Stories, I Survived…, The People Speak. I think you’ll see a bunch of format activity with our newer character-driven properties.

TV REAL: Which brands are resonating most internationally?
COHAN: We’re doing very well right now in Latin America with HISTORY. We’re the number one factual channel pan-regionally, with a number two cable channel in Mexico, which is pretty amazing to me. Two or three years ago we might’ve had it as an aspiration and I think the industry wasn’t sure that we could do it. We’re confident and have got even loftier goals. HISTORY’s got pretty strong momentum in the U.K. with shows like Storage Wars, IRT: Deadliest Roads or Pawn Stars, which is delivering 110 percent above HISTORY’s average share in prime time. IRT: Deadliest Roads is the number one HISTORY series of all time in the U.K. On the A&E side, we have a very localized Intervention that’s doing very well. We’re doing well in Asia—Pawn Stars is the number one HISTORY series of all time in Malaysia.

TV REAL: What is your strategy for growing the bouquet of channels internationally?
COHAN: It’s a continuing effort to launch channels where we think there’s demand and where it makes economic sense, which is pretty much everywhere. That does encompass both launching in a couple of places in the world where we don’t currently have channels; we don’t have a channel in France or Russia, but we sell a bunch of content in those markets. We don’t have a channel in China, we’ve got a branded block. The first priority is getting channels in those markets. Another priority is that we’d like to be in most markets with five, six or seven channels. The U.K. is a great example where we do have four SD channels and three HD properties today. In Latin America we’ve got three SD channels and two HD simulcasts. Where we have strong teams or a strong first or second channel, we believe we have legs to add additional channels, be they new brands, HD brands, or other services. We’d like to bring the full portfolio, where it makes sense, to virtually every market.