Corporate Social Responsibility

In April 2016 A+E Networks and HISTORY announced it was forming a global partnership with veterans’ volunteer charity Team Rubicon, building on the successful four-year collaboration between A+E and the US arm of the charity.

The global roll-out kicked off with a partnership between Team Rubicon UK and HISTORY in the United Kingdom. The initiative supports the charity whose mission is to unite the skills and experiences of military veterans with first responders, to rapidly deploy emergency response teams to disaster zones.

HISTORY will use the power of its on-air, online and social communities to help raise awareness and support Team Rubicon’s mission as the charity expands its work around the world. 

The campaign launched with a 60-second promotional film on HISTORY on 25 April 2016 which was conceived and created by A+E Networks USA and UK’s in-house creative teams.

Managing Director of A+E Networks UK Dean Possenniskie said:  “With their network of skilled problem-solvers who combine grit with planning and the latest technology to help repair communities, they are natural partners for the HISTORY brand. We are immensely proud to be affiliated with this group of selfless, competent, passionate individuals. We look forward to helping them to raise awareness, grow their volunteer base, and raise money for their ongoing operations.” 

In November 2016, staff at A+E Networks’ London office raised £17,000 for Team Rubicon UK through a sponsored cycle race – on exercise bikes!

The Crime + Investigation UK team is proud to support UK charity Missing People. With an estimated 216,000 individuals reported missing each year in the UK, the charity provides a lifeline for friends and family left behind.

The partnership has provided Missing People with a broadcasting partner to raise awareness of its valuable work.

In 2015 CI’s creative team gave their time and expertise to produce a moving short film about Missing People’s charity choir, which consists of the families of missing people. The team filmed the choir performing a specially-composed song, “I Miss You”, written by choir member Peter Boxell whose son went missing in 1988. It is voiced by Missing People patron Stephen Fry.

The CI-sponsored video was hosted on the Missing People website and on YouTube, with CI’s social media feeds driving traffic to it. The Guardian named it in their “Best charity videos of 2015” and it won a prestigious Promax Award.

In 2016 CI continued its support by creating and producing artwork for their national campaign Child Rescue Alert. It encourages members of the public to sign up to receive alerts via text, email or app notifications, in the event that a child is in imminent danger in their geographical area.

A+E Networks UK is committed to promoting equality in the TV and film industry.

In 2016, the company joined forces with Women in Film & TV UK (WFTV UK) to launch a national short film competition: The Lifetime Shorts Competition.

The initiative is part of A+E Networks’ global project, Broad Focus, which aims to find, develop and mentor future talent in the entertainment industry, with a specific focus on women.

The competition was open to all UK-based female filmmakers (directors, writers, producers) who have created original content of no more than five minutes’ duration.

We were delighted to receive over 200 entries, judged by an expert panel from the film and TV industry, including: actress and producer Michelle Collins; WFTV CEO Kate Kinninmont; and Heather Jones, General Manager of A+E Networks UK.

They selected seven winning films, including one overall winner – Sarah Clift – whose film La Madre Buena won a grand prize of £10,000. The winning film makers were invited to a screening and award ceremony at London’s Curzon Soho, which came on board to support the initiative. The films were also showcased at a WFTV members evening and at the House of Commons.

Most importantly, they had their global TV premieres on Lifetime in the UK in December 2016 and on Curzon’s Home Video service.

Several winners have gone on to win other prestigious awards, and roles in the industry, which they attribute to the publicity generated by the competition.

We plan to build on this successful partnership with WFTV UK in the year ahead.

In March 2017, Lifetime Poland launched a social digital campaign to celebrate International Down’s Syndrome Day and the premiere of Lifetime’s reality series Born This Way, A+E’s Emmy award-winning US show that follows a group of young adults with Down’s Syndrome.

 The initiative aimed to shed light on a subject that is largely ignored in Polish public discourse - and to make an real difference by encouraging public donations to Warsaw’s very first ‘halfway house’ for young adults with learning disabilities.

 The #SINGLELINE campaign focused on the single crease that extends across the palm of the hand - one of the characteristic features of Down’s. Lifetime used the single palmar crease as the symbol of World Down’s Syndrome Day in Poland, encouraging Lifetime fans, celebrities and supporters to post and share on social media a line drawn on their palm. Lifetime offered 5 Polish Zloty to the Bardziej Kochani Association who support people with Down’s, as well as their families.

 The campaign turned into a national phenomenon, reaching over 10.5m unique users in less than a week, trending on Twitter in Poland and raising over 40,000 Zloty for the charity. 

Down Syndrome.jpg

Lifetime UK has scheduled the new series of Emmy Award-winning Born This Way to launch on 19th March, to coincide with World Down’s Syndrome Day (21st March 2018).

Working with the Down’s Syndrome Association in the UK, we are supporting the day by mentioning #WDSD18 through continuity around the show, promoting the charity’s logo at the end of each episode and through social media. The Lifetime UK website includes an interview with Kate Powell, editor of Down 2 Earth, a magazine for and by people with Down's syndrome.