The History Channel’s Secret to Success: No History

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Last year, the History channel had a growth spurt, gaining hundreds of thousands of viewers while most of its competitors struggled to grow at all. This year, even more remarkably, the channel did it again.

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[h=6]History[/h]The History channel has branched out with shows like an adaptation of “Top Gear” from Britain.

[h=3]Related[/h][h=6][URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/business/making-a-list-and-taking-it-to-the-pawn-shop.html?ref=media"]Making a List, and Taking It to the Pawnshop[/URL] (December 19, 2011)[/h]

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[h=6]Marilynn K. Yee/The New York Times[/h]Nancy Dubuc is the general manager of the History channel.

That makes the network’s executives a subject of both envy and sympathy in the television business. They swiftly took History from top 20 status on cable to top five, a feat rarely if ever accomplished — and now they have to keep it there.
“This is going to be a dance with the big boys,” said Nancy Dubuc, the general manager of the channel, in an interview.
The final ratings for 2011 will show that History, a unit of A + E Networks, attracted more middle-aged men than any other cable channel except ESPN. Among all prime-time viewers, History was No. 5 on cable this year, up from No. 8 last year. The four bigger channels are USA, the Disney Channel, TNT and ESPN.
Unlike USA and TNT, History has no scripted drama. Unlike ESPN, it has no football or basketball. What History has is reality TV — and its success also attests to the success of documentary-style dramas and competitions featuring average people.
Its biggest show for the last two years has been “Pawn Stars,” about a family that buys and sells watches, necklaces and artifacts. Just last week, History scheduled a spinoff, “Cajun Pawn Stars.” But the channel is also considering shows that may seem suited for TNT or even ESPN, like a “Hatfields and McCoys” mini-series and a jousting competition. The goal, it seems, is to steal market share from the other big boys.
History has been able to declare its “best year ever” for five years in a row because it took what could be seen as a radical turn away from its brand nearly five years ago.
Originally a child of the A&E channel, History was known for [URL="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/w/world_war_ii_/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier"]World War II[/URL] specials and documentary series like “Modern Marvels” when Ms. Dubuc arrived from A&E in January 2007. “We said to ourselves, we have to create appointment viewing TV,” she said. Six months later, an old episode of “Modern Marvels” about truck drivers became a series, “Ice Road Truckers,” and set ratings records for the channel.
“Ice Road Truckers” gave confidence to the History staff and gave a signal to viewers and would-be producers that the channel was changing into something new and more explicitly entertaining. The channel’s slogan became “History Made Every Day.” For all the jokes about History ignoring the past, it worked. More men turn to the channel for what Ms. Dubuc sometimes calls “their version of romance television,” and more advertisers, too.
“We started to show that History was a great alternative to sports in attracting upscale men,” said her boss and mentor, Abbe Raven, the chief executive of A + E Networks. As advertising buyers spent more on History, “we took those revenues and invested them in programming to build the future.”
The series “Pawn Stars” and “Swamp People,” about alligator hunters in Louisiana, started in 2009 and 2010, respectively, giving the channel its giant growth spurts. This fall, when Michael Nathanson, a media analyst for Nomura Equity Research, wanted to tease out trends in cable viewing, he compared the 2007-8 season with the 2010-11 season and discovered that History had gained more ratings ground than any other single channel.
“Go figure,” Mr. Nathanson wrote in his report. He said the gains were driven “largely by the success of ‘Pawn Stars,’ ” which regularly drew more than five million viewers this year.
“This proves to us the power of one hit show and how it can transform a network,” he added.
History executives contend that the ratings gains are because of not one show but many, including history specials like “Gettysburg” and “Vietnam in HD” (yes, there is still some literal history on History) and reality competition shows like “Top Shot.” But they acknowledge that they need to breed new hits as “Pawn Stars” inevitably starts to fade.

“Nancy drills into me every time I see her, ‘Be first, be best,’ ” said Brent Montgomery, the executive producer of “Pawn Stars.” He is now trying to dream up a “real life sitcom” for the channel.

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[h=6]History[/h]Mike Wolfe, left, and Frank Fritz, who search trash bins and junkyards nationwide for antiques on “American Pickers.”

[h=3]Related[/h][h=6][URL="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/business/making-a-list-and-taking-it-to-the-pawn-shop.html?ref=media"]Making a List, and Taking It to the Pawnshop[/URL] (December 19, 2011)[/h]

Another producer, Craig Piligian, who makes “Top Shot” and “Big Shrimpin’ ” for History, has another show on the way called “Full Metal Jousting,” a production that harks back to the Renaissance, or at least Renaissance fairs. Mr. Piligian said his pitch was as follows: “Guys about 6-foot-2 wearing 180 pounds of armor on them, running at each other on 2,000-pound horses at 35 miles per hour and hitting each other with a pole that doesn’t break.”
“They like that it’s loud, it’s promotable, and it’s different,” he said.
Such reality shows with subtle nods to history are repeatable and are exportable around the world, where A + E Networks and other cable channel owners are growing faster than in the United States. History recently rechristened the smaller History International channel as H2, a home for more of the straight history programming that it used to highlight.
To burnish its brand and further diversify its schedule, History also is beginning to finance documentaries, including “Page One,” an independently made film about The New York Times that will run on the channel next year. Meanwhile, on History, Ms. Dubuc will continue to stretch the brand name; her team is considering ordering other scripted shows to complement the "Hatfields and McCoys," which will have its premiere in the spring.
History’s revenues are not disclosed, but to date most of its growth has come from charging more for ads, not from charging more to distributors who carry the channel. That will largely come later, when A&E renegotiates its contracts with distributors. It will aim to have History become a must-have channel, as ESPN has been for years.
“In the same way that we created this artifactual entertainment genre within History with ‘Pawn Stars’ and ‘American Pickers,’ I think that we will create new genres,” Ms. Raven said.
She says she believes that Ms. Dubuc can also do that at Lifetime, the company’s struggling channel for female viewers. Ms. Dubuc said Lifetime, which lost 11 percent of its 18- to 49-year-old audience this year, is moving out of its “trial and error” phase and is about to unveil a new brand identity. But she said the channel she loses more sleep over is History.
“The metrics on Lifetime are more in my favor than the metrics on History,” she said. “But we have an organization that believes in these teams and understands the challenges.”[/release]

[URL]http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/19/business/media/now-in-top-tier-history-channel-struggles-to-stay-there.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1&ref=media[/URL]

Well no shit

[Used Car Salesm]

At least Dogfights is still awesome, and has some relation to history.

It's only a matter of time before H2 turns out like MTV2, and they launch H3, and so on.

[Gatsby]

I want to learn more about the Ancient Greek history and mythology...

I don't trust the internet on this topic.

[The mouse]

Discovery has more history than the History channel.

[AK'z]

Just like how MTV shows things that have nothing to do with music.

[Raidyr]

[IMG]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ChLJ-LxLeqg/Ts6ZSwHPUJI/AAAAAAAAILk/j1Xz1psFUiQ/s1600/yesitis2.gif[/IMG]

[Janus Vesta]

[QUOTE=The mouse;33797209]Discovery has more history than the History channel.[/QUOTE]

I used to watch the discovery channel for discovery and the history channel for history. Now I watch the discovery channel for history and Mythbusters and I use the internet for discovery.

[editline]19th December 2011[/editline]

Also, these speculative shows about ancient astronauts can fuck off. Wasting valuable air time.

[Lizzrd]

LUMBURJACKS MAKING HISTORY, REAL TIME.
JOIN THE EXCITING ADVENTURES OF RICK AND FRIENDS AS THEY DRIVE TRUCKLOAD AFTER TRUCKLOAD OF SHIT OVER ICE.
ALSO PEOPLE LOOKING AT OLD SHIT YO.

[editline]19th December 2011[/editline]

I wanna hear about old wars not some dude talking about how much his grandpa sold a car for once.

[Occlusion2018]

Yesterday UK master race.

[Trunk Monkay]

I remember I used to watch the history channel when I was younger and actually learned shit. Modern marvels and How it's made on the discover were awesome, now it's a bunch of conspiracy and ice trucking on the history channel, and reality-fishing-dramas on discovery. Only shit where I can find actual historical information now on TV is the military channel, all that does is make me feel old with all the diabetes and medicare ads on that channel.

[Miskav]

[QUOTE=Trunk Monkay;33797491]I remember I used to watch the history channel when I was younger and actually learned shit. Modern marvels and How it's made on the discover were awesome, now it's a bunch of conspiracy and ice trucking on the history channel, and reality-fishing-dramas on discovery. Only shit where I can find actual historical information now on TV is the military channel, all that does is make me feel old with all the diabetes and medicare ads on that channel.[/QUOTE]

I remember watching discovery channel when they actually aired documentaries 24/7

Now it's all shit like american bikers or whateverthefuck that is.

[Pardalis]

I will always remember History as "Holy shit, change to the History channel, motherfucking MAIL CALL is on!"
[video=youtube;KqVKHS72NcI]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqVKHS72NcI[/video]

[Killuah]

It's like that one channel we have in Germany.
It's called N24 and it was supposed to be a 24/7 news channel.

Now all they do is showing old infotainment clips and documentaries about Hitler and Nazi Germany.

There even is a joke about it: Thanks to N24 I know more about Nazi Germany than Hitler did.

[Raidyr]

[QUOTE=Trunk Monkay;33797491]I remember I used to watch the history channel when I was younger and actually learned shit. Modern marvels and How it's made on the discover were awesome, now it's a bunch of conspiracy and ice trucking on the history channel, and reality-fishing-dramas on discovery. Only shit where I can find actual historical information now on TV is the military channel, all that does is make me feel old with all the diabetes and medicare ads on that channel.[/QUOTE]

Oh shit Modern Marvels.

[CoolKingKaso]

Just like G4 isn't about games anymore.

[Groat]

People only watch Pawn Stars so they can be outraged at how douchey the owners are for offering to buy Olympic torches for half of what they're worth.

[ignhelper]

I don't think discovery is any better

[video=youtube;4btttLiVHkw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4btttLiVHkw[/video]

[Meller Yeller]

Well Pawn Stars and the Picker show has quite a bit of history involved. Still though, the only time I see any real history shows is on Discovery and occasionally on truTV.

[Nikota]

[QUOTE=CoolKingKaso;33797671]Just like G4 isn't about games anymore.[/QUOTE]

It hasnt been since a year after they bought Tech TV. Which is the stupidest fucking thing. Now they're like "Why aren't people watching us?" and coming up with shit like IED squad.

[C.C]

Military History is still alright...When they are not playing Hitler/SS/Shootout/War On Terror, crap all the time.

[Raidyr]

[QUOTE=Nikota;33797769]shit like IED squad.[/QUOTE]

what

[keyfuzz]

[QUOTE=Janus Vesta;33797228]I used to watch the discovery channel for discovery and the history channel for history. Now I watch the discovery channel for history and Mythbusters and I use the internet for discovery.

[editline]19th December 2011[/editline]

Also, these speculative shows about ancient astronauts can fuck off. Wasting valuable air time.[/QUOTE]

I watch Discov for discovery, history and Mythbusters.

[JohnnyMo]

[QUOTE=GlebGuy;33797188]I want to learn more about the Ancient Greek history and mythology...

I don't trust the internet on this topic.[/QUOTE]

Take a class on it, find books on it in the library, or go back to the source material

[ignhelper]

[QUOTE=JohnnyMo1;33797848]Take a class on it, find books on it in the library, or go back to the source material[/QUOTE]

I think the reason he doesn't does it is because no colour and no pictures

[rrkpp_]

I like the new History shows

Stuff like American Pickers and Pawn Stars end up actually teaching you a lot of fun-fact history while still being entertaining programs that don't revolve around a single subject. Some of their shows are flat out fucking stupid though, it'd be cool if they could just keep the good new stuff (Top Gear, Pickers, Pawn, Ancient Aliens (fuck you its interesting)) and fill in the rest with their old.. You know, history stuff.

[editline]19th December 2011[/editline]

[QUOTE=Ignhelper;33797708]I don't think discovery is any better

[video=youtube;4btttLiVHkw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4btttLiVHkw[/video][/QUOTE]

Sons of Guns is a pretty cool show but right now its devolving into "ooo drama between kris and steph WILL THEY GO ON A DATe??"

[JustExtreme]

haha the "history inspired" channel more like, now

[Kalibos]

the secret to history channel's success?

[img]http://assets.sbnation.com/assets/743037/im-not-saying-its-aliens-but-its-aliens.jpg[/img]

[ignhelper]

[QUOTE=Kopimi;33797926]

Sons of Guns is a pretty cool show but right now its devolving into "ooo drama between kris and steph WILL THEY GO ON A DATe??"[/QUOTE]

Shame I can't find the glock/Beretta switch. It was horrible.

[Vitamine D]

They need to keep Histories Greatest Tank Battles, Ancient Aliens, After People, and a bunch of other good shows.

[Nikota]

[QUOTE=Raidyr;33797824]what[/QUOTE]

Yep.