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Profile: Smithsonian’s Hayden Bolsters HD Collection

Feb 14, 2008  •  Post A Comment

The player: Thomas Hayden, executive vice president and general manager at Smithsonian Networks
The play: Hayden last year began leading Showtime’s development of Smithsonian Networks, a partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. The joint venture was started in early 2006 to showcase the 140 million artifacts housed by what some refer to as “America’s Attic.” The channel, which shows about 95% of its content in true high-definition and is majority-owned by Viacom unit Showtime, was initially designed as a video-on-demand service. The channel evolved toward a regular cable channel after discussions with satellite television operators in 2007, Hayden said. The New York-based Smithsonian Networks launched in September after securing distribution with satellite leader DirecTV, and said this week it would be carried by Charter Communications and Verizon FiOS digital cable service, boosting the channel’s potential viewership to about 22 million people.
The pitch: The channel started with 75 hours of programming. That had grown to 100 hours by the end of last year and Smithsonian plans to add about another 100 hours of programming per year, Hayden said. Because only 2% of the Smithsonian’s artifacts are on display at one time, “the breadth and scope provides tremendous opportunities in science, nature and history. A lot of that genre lends itself to HD,” Hayden said. All of the content is created in HD rather than being up-converted from standard definition.
Backstory: Hayden, 52, joined Showtime 19 years ago, working in finance and business development before heading Smithsonian Networks. He had previously worked for 10 years in what was then Kraft General Foods’ marketing department. “When I had the chance to be in entertainment or sell coffee, the choice was obvious,” said Hayden, who grew up in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and graduated from Penn State University.

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