Slogan For Your Inspiration Language English | Country United States | |
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Launched January 1, 1999; 18 years ago (1999-01-01) (as The Biography Channel)
July 7, 2014; 2 years ago (2014-07-07) (relaunch; as FYI) Owned by A&E Networks
(Hearst Corporation (50%)
Disney–ABC Television Group (50%)) Picture format 720p (HDTV)
Downgraded to letterboxed 480i for SDTV feed TV shows Married at First Sight, Tiny House Nation, Kocktails with Khloé, BlackLove, Tiny House Hunting | ||
FYI (an abbreviation for "For Your Information", stylized as fyi,) is an American digital cable and satellite channel that is owned by A&E Networks, a cable network joint venture between the Disney–ABC Television Group subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Corporation (each own 50%). The network features lifestyle programming, with a mix of reality, culinary, home renovation and makeover series.
Contents
- As The Biography Channel
- As FYI
- Current FYI programming
- Current other programming
- In production
- In development
- Former Bio programming
- International versions of Bio and FYI
- References
The network originally launched in 1999 as The Biography Channel—an offshoot of the A&E television series Biography. As such, it originally featured factual programs, such as reruns of its namesake. As A&E shifted its focus towards reality and drama series, Biography Channel became the home for several series that had been displaced by the network (including Biography itself), but shifted towards reality-oriented series itself in 2007 with a re-brand as simply Bio.
As of February 2015, the channel was available to approximately 70,932,000 pay television households (60.9% of households with at least one television set) in the United States.
As The Biography Channel
The channel was launched on January 1, 1999 as The Biography Channel. A&E Television Networks (now A+E Networks, and operated as a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company, the Hearst Corporation and NBC at the time) conceived the channel as an offshoot of the long-running A&E profile series Biography. In addition to airing biographical shows, the network aired fictional, non-biographical programs that were previously seen on A&E, including Murder, She Wrote and Sherlock Holmes; the scripted programming was dropped from the channel in 2007.
On October 1, 2000, A&E Networks expanded its British partnership with British Sky Broadcasting with the launch of a UK market Biography Channel.
By August 2006, The Biography Channel became the exclusive home for the Biography series, which was also dropped by A&E. In July 2007, Biography Channel unveiled a new on-air brand—identifying the network simply as "Bio". 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 new series Shatner's Raw Nerve, hosted by actor William Shatner.
The Biography Channel, or Bio, had been stagnating since A+E’s 2013 upfront presentation as little focus was placed upon it. Bio was generating 12 cents per subscribers from the video provider which is half the industry average. 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. 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.
As FYI
In December 2013, A+E Networks announced that The Biography Channel would be rebranded as FYI, a contemporary lifestyle network, starting in mid 2014. By February, FYI had a slate of six new series including three food series, two home design series, and one style series. Other shows were also in development, Two of the shows in development had pilot orders, Red Hot Design and Jennifer’s Way. In April, Midnight Feast was greenlit for the new channel while 2 others were order to pilot, Say It To My Face and Reverse Course.
With the June 2014 announcement of the January 2015 end of the ABC Owned Television Stations-run digital network Live Well Network, some of its programming was being offered to FYI, which shares partial ABC ownership. The network launched on July 7, 2014 with a preview special, FYI: First Look, which featured previews of the network's new programming. The first of its new original series, Married at First Sight, premiered the next day.
In January 2015, following the success of its Six Months Later special, FYI ordered Married at First Sight: The First Year.
In January 2016, FYI named Paul Greenberg as their Executive Vice-President / General Manager.
Current FYI programming
Current other programming
In production
In development
Former Bio programming
International versions of Bio and FYI
Despite the relaunch, international versions of The Biography Channel continue to 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 replaced by Viceland in February 2016.