Tributes to ‘towering figure’ in early days of cable TV pour in
WILTON — Tributes poured in over the weekend for Nickolas Davatzes, who spearheaded A+E Network’s quick evolution from a landing pad for syndicated shows on cable TV to becoming a major springboard in its own right for original programming and the spin-off network History.
Davatzes, known as Nick, CEO emeritus of A+E Networks, died Saturday at his home in Wilton where he lived for over 50 years. He was 79.
Davatzes was the founding CEO of A+E Networks, a joint venture of Hearst Corp. and Walt Disney. (Hearst Connecticut Media Group owns this newspaper).
From the months leading up to its 1984 launch through 2005, Davatzes ran A+E and established the History Channel in 1995 as a subsidiary of A+E.
In November 2006, President George W. Bush presented Davatzes, a 1999 inductee of the Broadcasting & Cable Hall of Fame, with the National Humanities Medal in recognition of his industry contributions.
The industry lost another legend this year — Gustave Hauser, who was Davatzes’ mentor at a Time Warner Cable predecessor company that was the incubator for networks like MTV, Nickelodeon and The Movie Channel.
“Gus Hauser was a very close and personal friend of mine, and he was a great admirer of Nick,” Frank A. Bennack Jr., executive vice chairman and former CEO of Hearst, said in a telephone interview Monday from his New Canaan home. “He constantly [commented] on ... how astute and how successful Nick had become. Gus thought of him — whether he thought of himself or not in that way — as a very important early pioneer and contributor on the content side.”
The Arts & Entertainment Network was formed via the merger of the Alpha Repertory Television Service, owned at the time by Hearst and ABC; and the Entertainment Network, owned by RCA and the Rockefeller family.
Hearst Corp. and ABC parent Walt Disney now split ownership of A+E Networks, with the cable network based in New York City with a Stamford operations center.
While ESPN was born at the end of the first wave of cable networks that emerged in the 1970s alongside stalwarts like HBO, Nickelodeon and USA Network, A+E was in the next echelon that mushroomed in the front half of the 1980s as cable providers hooked up customers beyond the suburbs and looked to expand their channel counts.
Today, A+E reaches more than 350 million households. In a written statement, Disney’s executive chairman Bob Iger called Davatzes “a towering figure” in the early days of cable television.
“Nick was a towering figure in the early days of cable television, helping build some of the most iconic brands in the media landscape,” Iger said. “An incredible leader, Nick was a person of true integrity and was always a wonderful partner to all of us at Disney. Our deepest condolences go out to his family and to all of our friends and colleagues at A+E Networks.”
Graduating at age 16, Nick Davatzes enrolled at St. John’s University where he met his spouse, Dorothea. The couple married in 1968 and had three children.
Davatzes eventually caught the interest of Hearst and ABC, which recruited him in late 1983 to lead their new cable channel. The Arts & Entertainment Network debuted Feb. 1, 1984.
A+E Networks and The History Channel have since gone on to win a shelf of industry awards for their own programming, to include Emmy awards for the “Biography” series that A+E Networks acquired three years after its launch. In 2013, the network launched A+E Studios to lead the production of original series and films.
Bennack said Davatzes would have enjoyed the challenges facing today’s cable networks, amid competition from streaming services like Netflix.
“Because of his understanding of the business and his foresight, he probably would have been ahead of most in assessing just how important this was going to be and how this transition affects the content providers,” Bennack said.
Davatzes is survived by his wife Dorothea Hayes Davatzes; son George (Geody) Davatzes and his wife Jennifer Davatzes; son Dr. Nicholas Davatzes and his wife Dr. Alexandra Davatzes; and grandchildren Julia, Nicholas, Elias and Lilly. Davatzes is predeceased by his son Christopher Davatzes.
The Davatzes family scheduled calling hours at Raymond Funeral Home in Norwalk from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday. A memorial service will be held at Our Lady of Fatima Church in Wilton at 10 a.m. Saturday. Donations can be made in memory of Nick Davatzes to the Wilton Library Association Endowment Fund, 137 Old Ridgefield Road, Wilton, CT 06897.