Hearst Television has agreed to acquire the Walt Disney Company’s 50 percent stake in cable networks programmer A+E Global Media in a deal valued at over $1 billion, the companies announced this week.
On Tuesday, Hearst said it expects to close on its acquisition of Disney’s stake in A+E Global Media by September, subject to customary closing conditions.
Hearst has served as an equity owner of A+E Global Media since it was relaunched from ARTS, the Alpha Repository Television Service, in the mid-1980s. Disney became a participant in the joint venture through its acquisition of ABC and Capital Cities in the 1990s.
ABC was a founding participant in A+E Global Media, which previously operated as A+E Networks. The brand includes recognizable cable channels like A&E, the History Channel and Lifetime, plus an equity stake in streaming service Philo.
Ongoing declines in the cable television industry have put upward pressure on Hearst and Disney’s joint venture. In a letter to employees last year, Hearst CEO Steve Swartz said cable and satellite-related churn driven by higher subscription costs were chipping away at the money A+E Global Media collected in distribution revenue from those same platforms.
Hearst and Disney’s other entertainment venture, sports network ESPN, has proven more lucrative over the past few years, with sports being one of the few drivers of pay TV sign-ups and retention as entertainment, lifestyle and knowledge-based programming shifts to lower-priced, on-demand streaming platforms.
Last summer, reports indicated Disney and Hearst hired a financial firm to help it explore the possible sale of A+E Global Media to another party. Possible scenarios included divvying up A+E Global Media and selling off its parts, including its content library, which is widely licensed by other broadcasters.
It isn’t clear why Hearst was interested in acquiring the entirety of A+E Global Media or what the company intends to do as a sole owner.
If the deal closes as expected in September, A+E Global Media will fall under common ownership with other Hearst properties like the San Francisco Chronicle, the Austin American-Statesman, the Cleveland Advocate, Autoweek, Good Housekeeping, Elle, Esquire, Fitch Group and nearly three dozen local TV stations in places like Baltimore, Albuquerque, Fort Myers, Boston, Sacramento, Des Moines, Kansas City and New Orleans.
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