• by Wayne Friedman , November 7, 2007

National CineMedia, the in-theater advertising network, has added to its roster of advertisers and content providers by signing up A&E Networks.

The deal will include A&E contributing to the National Cinemedia 20-minute "First Look" pre-feature program, for which the cable network will produce new short-form content to promote the A&E and The History Channel TV series and specials.

As part of the deal, A&E will also get advertising and promotional tools in theater lobbies, which feature more than 2,000 video and high-definition plasma screens in some 780 theatres.

NCM's "First Look" show airs on some 13,500 screens in AMC Entertainment, Cinemark, Goodrich Quality Theaters, Kerasotes ShowPlace Theatres, and Regal Entertainment Group. With other affiliates the First Look gets into 49 of the top 50 markets and 156 markets overall.

Other TV programmers that have made content/marketing deals with National CineMedia include Discovery Communications, NBC Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting System and Universal Studios.

Non-entertainment deals have been struck with the likes of Bayer HealthCare, Coca-Cola, Humana, and Microsoft.

NCM was founded some years ago as a partnership of three major theater operators--AMC Entertainment, Cinemark USA, and Regal Entertainment Group.