A&E Nets Reshuffles Execs

A&E Television Networks has reshuffled the deck at its advertising sales unit, appointing three svps to oversee business at its signature network groups (A&E, History and Lifetime). Effective Monday, Oct. 4, Amy Baker makes the jump from History, steering ad sales for the Lifetime brands as svp. Baker assumes the role Debbie Richman abdicated in April, when she was tapped to lead prime-time sales for ABC Television Network.Baker joined History in February 2006, following a 14-year stint at Discovery Communications. With Baker installed at the women’s network, Peter Olsen will move from the A&E unit to serve as svp, ad sales for the History brands. Completing the shift, Jim Agius has been elevated to svp, ad sales for A&E and Bio.Also getting a boost is Lifetime’s David Desocio, who was named to the newly-created position of svp of partnerships across all AETN brands.The four executives report to Mel Berning, executive vp, ad sales, AETN. (Like Berning, Olsen has experience on the other side of the table, having served as evp and director of national broadcast at Mediacom before joining AETN in 2005.)“I’m delighted to have a strong ad sales leadership team in place,” said Berning. “[Our] portfolio...is incredibly valuable to advertisers, and this team will effectively carry this powerful message into the marketplace.” Desocio’s promotion will enable AETN to develop integrated marketing efforts across the three network brands. “David has been working on the partnerships group at Lifetime, where he worked closely with L’Oréal and Procter & Gamble on their respective Project Runway deals,” Berning said. “Now he’ll be offering innovative concepts to advertisers across all three powerful assets.”Baker has worked closely over the last four years with History president and general manager Nancy Dubuc, who added oversight of Lifetime to her duty roster in April 2010. In her new role, she’ll be charged with executing against the network’s revamped game plan, which will include a great deal of unscripted programming (Dubuc’s stock-in-trade) as well as a larger selection of movie acquisitions and more targeted drama skeins. “I think Lifetime is headed in the right direction. We’ve gotten a little spoiled in that we’ve come to expect excellence from Nancy and her team because they have always delivered,” Berning said. “The trick has been to identify which pieces have been working––Runway has performed much better this season, and we expect Army Wives will do well when it comes back for season five in Q1––but there are still a couple of pieces where we have to connect the dots.”In total viewers and the 18-49 demo, History and A&E both stand among the top 10 cable networks in prime. History closed out the third quarter with an average nightly draw of 1.72 million viewers, a gain of 42 percent year-over-year. The net finished fifth among the 18-49 crowd, drawing 802,000 (up 37 percent), while taking fourth place with its deliveries of adults 25-54, averaging 882,000 (up 39 percent). A&E saw its prime time deliveries grow 5 percent year-over-year, with an average draw of 1.5 million viewers, half of which were adults 25-54. The network finished sixth among the 25-54 demo, growing 2 percent to 744,000.For its part, Lifetime showed marked improvement under Dubuc. The network drew 1.3 million viewers in prime, raising its stake among the 18-49 demo by 3 percent (593,000). A year ago, Lifetime dropped 12 percent in the demo. In Q3 2010, Lifetime improved 2 percent with women 18-49, drawing 452,000, while boosting its women 25-54 audience 6 percent to 490,000.Per SNL Kagan estimates, the three AETN brands in 2009 took in some $1.25 billion in net ad sales revenue.“We’ve got the fastest-growing network for men in History, the top network for women in Lifetime and one of the biggest draws for adult viewers in A&E,” Berning said. “This is great collection of brands and we’re looking forward to doing big things with our new structure.”

Convergent TV

A&E Nets Reshuffles Execs

Anthony Crupi

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Anthony Crupi