Kathrin Palesch

Managing Director of A+E Networks Germany

As head of the entire German-speaking arm of A+E Networks EMEA, Kathrin Palesch is responsible for all aspects of the company’s compelling and bingeworthy content in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 

A graduate in business administration, Kathrin has vastly expanded her expertise since joining the network in 2008 as Director Finance. Her role was widened to Director Finance & Business Development seven years later, taking on the responsibility of distribution. Then, in June 2019, came the big call. Just as A+E Networks EMEA launched its factual entertainment channel Crime + Investigation in Germany, so Kathrin became Managing Director of the whole enterprise. 

She accelerated C+I, together with the network’s other linear offering The History Channel, into new markets and platform partnerships while greatly expanding their SVoD products: HISTORY Play and Crime + Investigation Play. Under Kathrin’s direction, the Play channels launched on Apple and Amazon in 2019 and 2020 respectively, increasing the brands’ popularity and availability to viewers. A further partnership was secured in 2021 as global streaming aggregator ScreenHits TV agreed to carry them across the German-speaking region. 

Those Covid-19 years were no easy time for any media company - let alone a new Managing Director - impacting production volumes across the industry. Nevertheless, Kathrin’s team launched History Talks, a new interview format at the end of 2020. And in Voices of the Corona Crisis, the everyday present became the beguiling TV past. For the first time in a documentary, she gave her viewers a voice, anxious for them to record their lives lived in the eye of history. 

Content is key, says Kathrin, who is proud of her other local productions like Im Angesicht (Face to Face) where German film and TV figures relive their personal experience of crime, and On The Track of History, a short form series re-examining past events for clues we’ve overlooked. 

But with ground-breaking content must come strategic distribution, so Kathrin has expanded the channels’ delivery with all German Pay TV operators and secured long term partnerships with SKY Deutschland, Vodafone, Deutsche Telekom and M7, among others. 

Prior to joining the company, Kathrin was Head of Accounting and Controlling at NBC Universal Global Networks. Now, from her home in Munich, Kathrin is controlling her own network, marrying A+E talent with the German-speaking world.