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American pay television channel From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
FYI (stylized as fyi,) is an American basic cable channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between the Disney Entertainment subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and Hearst Communications (each owns 50%). The network features lifestyle programming, with a mix of reality, culinary, home renovation and makeover series.
 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area |
|
| Headquarters | Newark, New Jersey |
| Programming | |
| Language(s) | English |
| Picture format | 1080i (HDTV) Downgraded to letterboxed 480i for SDTV feed |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | A&E Networks |
| Sister channels | LMN[1] |
| History | |
| Launched | November 16, 1998 |
| Former names | The Biography Channel (1998–2014) |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Service(s) | Philo, Sling TV, Frndly TV, Vidgo, Hulu + Live TV |
The network originally launched in 1998 as The Biography Channel, as an offshoot of A&E and named after its television series Biography. As such, it originally featured factual programs, such as reruns of its namesake. As A&E shifted its focus towards reality television and drama series, the Biography Channel became the home for several series that had been displaced by the flagship network (including Biography itself), but shifted towards reality-oriented series itself in 2007 and was rebranded as simply Bio. In 2014, the channel was rebranded as FYI, an initialism for "for your information".
As of November 2023[update], FYI is available to approximately 35,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2015 peak of 73,000,000 households.[2]
In recent years, FYI has lost carriage with the growth of streaming alternatives and has generally been depreciated by A&E Networks in current retransmission consent negotiations with cable and streaming providers.
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The channel was launched on November 16, 1998, as The Biography Channel by A&E Television Networks, which conceived the channel as an offshoot of the long-running A&E profile series Biography.[3][4] On October 1, 2000, A&E Networks expanded its British partnership with British Sky Broadcasting with the launch of a UK market Biography Channel.[5]
In August 2006, The Biography Channel became the exclusive home for the Biography series, as it was dropped by A&E. Another 64 hours of the show was ordered for its first year on the channel.[6] In 2007, Biography Channel unveiled a new on-air brand—identifying the network simply as "Bio".[4] The changes came as the network shifted its scope to de-emphasize traditional biographical programs in favor of "true stories about fascinating people", such as the series Shatner's Raw Nerve, hosted by William Shatner.[7]
Bio had been stagnating since A+E's 2013 upfront presentation as little focus was placed upon it. Bio was generating 12 cents per subscriber from the video provider, about half the industry average.[citation needed] After tweaking the three main A+E channels, Bio averaged viewers of 91,000 adults 25–54 in prime compared to what A&E (716,000) and History (703,000) managed over the same period.[8] Jana Bennett was hired as president of LMN and Bio in June 2013 and, having transformed TLC from an educational channel to a lifestyle network, was considered an indication that adding a lifestyle channel to the A+E portfolio was a possibility. An opening in the genre occurred as the Style Network became the men-focused Esquire Network. While preparing to launch FYI, Bio began re-airing A&E's house-flipping shows and 30 potential shows were placed in development.[1]
In December 2013, A+E Networks announced that The Biography Channel would be rebranded as FYI, a contemporary lifestyle network, starting in mid 2014.[9] By February, FYI had a slate of six new series including three food series, two home design series, and one style series, with other shows also in development,[10] including pilot orders of Red Hot Design and Jennifer's Way.[11] In April, Midnight Feast was greenlit for the new channel while two others—Say it to my face and Reverse Course—were ordered to pilot.[12]
With the June 2014 announcement of the 2015 end of the ABC Owned Television Stations-run subscription network Live Well Network, some of its programming was being offered to FYI, which shared partial ABC ownership.[13] The network launched on July 7, 2014, with a preview special, FYI: First Look, featuring previews of the network's new programming. Its first new original series, Married at First Sight, premiered the next day.[14]
In January 2015, following the success of its Six Months Later special, FYI ordered Married at First Sight: The First Year.[15][16]
 | This section needs to be updated. (June 2019) |
Despite the relaunch, international versions of The Biography Channel exist in some regions. An international version of The Biography Channel previously operated in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Israel, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Latin America, and Southeast Asia, but has since been replaced by other channels. The Australian channel was closed in 2015. The Canadian version, operated under license by Rogers Media, was relaunched as Viceland in February 2016, but was then shut down on March 31, 2018.
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