Introduction about A&E
Jointly owned by Capital Cities/ABC, NBC, and the Hearst Corporation, A&E went on the air on February 1, 1984, the result of a merger of the ARTS Channel (owned by ABC and Hearst) and the Entertainment Channel (a venture of Rockefeller Center and RCA). It had 9 million subscribers and a Tag Heuer Replica Watches solitary advertiser. Ford. By May I995, A&E was the fifth most viewed cable network,3 with 64 million subscribers via more than 9,300 cable systems in the United States and Canada.
To persuade cable systems around the country to carry the channel, an effort was made to make A&E part of the fabric of every community in which it operated. A National Cable Library project was initiated, and working through local cable systems, A&E offered to set up video libraries, composed of tapes of its programming, in local libraries.
The A&E network succeeded by being relent-lessly frugal. It produced little original programming, instead acquiring programs, mainly from the BBC. In 1984, 60 percent of its shows came from the BBC; in 1989, less than 40 percent did. By combining dance and opera with slapstick comedy and historical documentaries and programs about war, A&E attracts the viewers advertisers seek. A&E claims to offer advertisers desirable demographics: people 35 to 45 years old, with four years of college, and average annual incomes of $40,000 to $50,000.
N. R. Kleinfield, “A&E: A Cable Success Story,” New York Times, 16 April 1989, p. 31H; “A&E Television Network,” Advertising Age, 8 May I995, p. C6. b”1995 Guide to National Cable TV Networks,” Advertising Age, 5 May 1995, p. C43. ‘Advertising Age, 5 May 1995, under constant review for some years, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), owners, and Congress had failed to reach consensus on a plan.
The FCC broke the deadlock in August 1999 with new regulations that permitted companies to own a second television station in a market that had at least eight independently owned stations, but only if the company did not own more than one of the top four rated stations. (For a definition of a market, see Chapter 10.) FCC regulations continue to prohibit ownership of groups of stations that reach more than 35 percent of the nation’s households, a limit Cartier Replica that both CBS and Fox have reached. That limit does not apply if networks are purchasing financially distressed stations. There is speculation that the 35 percent cap may soon be raised. Note, however, that FCC rules hew to the principle that there should be many voices in a media market.
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