Q&A: Sean Cohan

Under Sean Cohan’s leadership over the past few years, A+E Networks has ramped up its global programming-distribution business, which stems from an 8,000-hour library, across all platforms. It has also continued to launch channels, including HISTORY and Crime & Investigation Network, around the world. A+E Networks’ channels and branded blocks are now available in more than 150 countries to 250-million-plus TV households. Sean Cohan, the senior VP of international for A+E Networks, talks about his priorities for growing the company’s businesses.

WS: You have more programming to sell and you’ve built up your distribution team.
COHAN: Yes. We came to a realization that we had a lot of product to sell and new genres and were probably lean on the resource side, so we felt there was an opportunity to drive more of our catalogue. So we filled in the team. At the beginning of the year we brought on Ian Jones, as managing director for content distribution and commercial development; Ellen Lovejoy, as senior director of international content sales; and Jo Lovell, as director of program sales. Those have been exciting developments.

WS: Part of that increase in product comes from Lifetime movies.
COHAN: The Lifetime piece has been a success story so far. In addition to the movies, we are increasingly selling the Lifetime unscripted [content], which is relatively new to the channel. So, there’s Seriously Funny Kids, Glamour Belles. We’ve got a good amount of hours that we’re selling and there’s a healthy appetite for the content. There’s frankly a pretty good recognition for programming that has the Lifetime “seal of approval.”

WS: Besides finished product, are you also selling formats?
COHAN: Yes, we are going into formats as well. So, for example, a show like Coming Home [about members of the military returning home], it’s about a lot of things [and has many different entry points for the audience]. In the U.S., it works very well because we pair it with the drama series Army Wives. But it’s really fun to get out and sell that show and there’s been interest in that format. It’s simple, but it’s fairly universal because an unfortunate truth in our world today is that there’s war in several places. Among our formats, we have Intervention and Pawn Stars.
Whether it’s with movies, or scripted, or unscripted—we’re really looking forward to getting out and selling them to the international markets.

WS: You are also growing your international channel portfolio.
COHAN: On our channels side, HISTORY around the world continues to hum. In the U.S., Nancy Dubuc [the president and general manager of HISTORY and Lifetime] and her team have turned HISTORY into a top five network. The ambition internationally is to try to match that. We’re not there yet, but we want to take the character-driven successful shows, pair them with lots of core HISTORY programming and drive this channel to not only be one of the top factual channels, but to being a top channel among the entertainment players.

WS: Would you say one of the advantages that you have in programming your channels around the world is that you can tap into so much content that you own?
COHAN: That’s true, and I think that this is one of those situations where I’d say it’s better to be lucky than good. I’ll explain. Many years ago, Nick Davatzes [then president and CEO], and the management at A+E Networks made a concerted, strategic decision to own the lion’s share of our content. It was a really prophetic decision and—when I say “better lucky than good”—it’s because when we started a really concerted, aggressive rollout of our brands, we were faced with a very fortuitous situation. We had not only a growing library, but there was also a strategic imperative in place to have ownership stakes in our product. That ownership’s been really helpful to the growth of our channels.

It’s very hard today to launch channels that are just acquisition vehicles—that are not based on an on-going, reliable flow of quality product. There’s a fair amount of uncertainty about what you’re going to be able to [program] if you don’t have a reliable pipeline of quality programming. So, ownership of content is key.

WS: I’m hearing several producers say, “We have to start thinking about producing for tablets.” Is that a concern for today or for further down the road?
COHAN: I would tweak the statement. I would say, “We have to start looking at opportunities on tablets as another kind of end-device.” And there are a couple of ways to look at those opportunities. On one level, you make sure your website is optimized for tablets. You make sure that your existing content—as long as the rights are protected and the business model’s right—is viewable and is accessible, some of it at least, on tablets. It’s akin to a conversation we would have had two, three years ago about mobile phones. Are we going to [make a huge investment] producing content for mobile phones? No. But, we do want to make sure that if customers want to see our content, that we’re getting it to them. There is some product that was at least considered for mobile phones when we produced it. We want to make sure that we’ve got business models and partnerships that allow us to deliver to mobile phones.

But, at the core of it, if we’re telling great stories, if we’re developing great characters, if we’re driving ratings on the linear networks and we’re thinking upstream about these other devices and what might work and might not, I think that suffices for now.

It’s about producing great, visually compelling stories; we’re not a TV company anymore, we’re an entertainment company.