36: WGE MAG
A+E Networks TV to Games A+E
Networks, home to History and Bio, two of the most recognised channels around the world and provider of iconic TV shows such as Ice Road Truckers, Mega Disasters, American Pickers and Pawn Stars. But the life of a TV show no longer ends on your TV set. More and more we are seeing titles gain an extra dimension in the world of gaming and social media. A+E Networks Digital Media, a division of A+E Networks, is a leading provider of digital content for properties including HISTORY®, Lifetime®, A&E Network®, BIO™, Lifetime Moms and Roiworld. More than 20 million unique visitors per month engage with the company’s digital brands across six properties, and millions more consume the content via syndication, social media and mobile. WGE:MAG spoke with Kris Soumas, Senior Vice President of Games at A+E Networks to discover which TV shows have had the ‘Digital Media’ treatment and what fans of the History Channel can expect to see in the near future.
“Where many social games start off strong and then fade after a few months, our audience grew fairly quickly and our daily active users have stayed strong ever since. In fact we just celebrated the one year anniversary of the game and it has been played over 200 million times.” “A+E Networks strongly believes that TV shows and social games go hand in hand, which is why we’ve invested resources in developing games to correspond with our popular TV shows,” Soumas said as she talked about the relationship between traditional media and future technology. “History in particular is a network that is a prime target for gamification as so many of the programs are games in their own right.