A&E (an initialism for its former name, the Arts & Entertainment Network), is an American cable and satellite television channel that serves as the flagship television property of A+E Networks, a joint venture between the Hearst Corporation and Disney–ABC Television Group subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company (both of which maintain a 50% ownership interest).
The channel originally focused programming on biographies, documentaries, and drama series (especially crime dramas and mysteries) but has later expanded to include reality television programming. As of February 2015, A&E is available to approximately 95,968,000 pay television households (82.4% of households with television) in the United States.
