The Biography Channel The channel was launched on November 16, 1998, as The Biography Channel by A&E Television Networks, which conceived the channel as an offshoot of the long-running
A&E profile series
Biography. On October 1, 2000, A&E Networks expanded its British partnership with
British Sky Broadcasting with the launch of a UK market Biography Channel. In August 2006, The Biography Channel became the exclusive home for the
Biography series, as it was dropped by A&E. Another 64 hours of the show was ordered for its first year on the channel. In 2007, Biography Channel unveiled a new on-air brand—identifying the network simply as "Bio". Bio had been stagnating since
A+E's 2013
upfront presentation as little focus was placed upon it. Bio was generating 12 cents per subscriber from the
video provider, about 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 (2014–present) 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, with other shows also in development, including pilot orders of
Red Hot Design starring Shasta Smith, and ''Jennifer's Way
. In April, Midnight Feast
was greenlit for the new channel while two others—Say it to my face
and Reverse Course—''were ordered to pilot. With the June 2014 announcement of the 2015 end of the
ABC Owned Television Stations-run subscription network
Live Well Network, some of its programming was being offered to FYI, which shared partial ABC ownership. The network launched on July 7, 2014, with a preview special,
FYI: First Look, featuring previews of the network's new programming. Its first 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. ==Programming==