Anne Marie Sweeney (born November 4, 1957) is an American businesswoman. She was formerly the co-chair of Disney Media, President of the

Disney–ABC Television Group Disney General Entertainment Content, doing business as Walt Disney Television, is an American entertainment company that oversees television content and assets owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company. Forming the company's General Enterta ...

, and the President of Disney Channel from 1996 to 2014. In March 2014, she announced that she would be leaving her position at the

Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

to become a television director. She is a member of the

George Foster Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

s board of jurors.

Early life and education

Sweeney was born in

Kingston, New York Kingston is a city in and the county seat of Ulster County, New York, United States. It is north of New York City and south of Albany. The city's metropolitan area is grouped with the New York metropolitan area around Manhattan by the United ...

. She graduated with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

degree from the

College of New Rochelle The College of New Rochelle (CNR) was a private Catholic college with its main campus in New Rochelle, New York, but also in Australia, England, and Germany. It was founded as the College of St. Angela by Mother Irene Gill, OSU of the Ursuline O ...

and earned an Ed.M. degree from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

Nickelodeon and Fox

Prior to her work at Disney/ABC she was chairman and CEO of FX Networks, Inc., from 1993 to 1996. During her tenure, she presided over the launch of two basic cable networks, FX, an entertainment network and FXM: Movies from Fox, Hollywood’s first studio-based movie network. Before joining Fox, Sweeney spent 12 years at

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Group. It ...

/ Nick at Nite in various executive positions, most recently as senior vice president of Program Enterprises. She oversaw Nickelodeon’s international expansion, including launching the channel in the United Kingdom, resulting in a joint venture with

British Sky Broadcasting Sky UK Limited is a British broadcaster and telecommunications company that provides television and broadband Internet services, fixed line and mobile telephone services to consumers and businesses in the United Kingdom. It is a subsidiary of ...

The Walt Disney Company

Sweeney joined

The Walt Disney Company The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment industry, entertainment conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios (Burbank), Walt Disney Stud ...

in February 1996 as president of Disney Channel and executive vice president of Disney/ABC Cable Networks. From October 2000 to April 2004, Sweeney served as president of ABC Cable Networks Group and The Disney Channel Worldwide. Continuing with the strategy that was begun by her predecessor John F. Cooke, The Disney Channel more than quintupled its subscriber base with its mix of original series and movies and acquired programming. It is now available on basic cable in more than 87 million homes in the United States. Disney Channel executives hoped to become more "boy friendly" in 2010; especially when ''

Good Luck Charlie ''Good Luck Charlie'' is an American sitcom that originally aired on Disney Channel from April 4, 2010, to February 16, 2014. The series' creators, Phil Baker and Drew Vaupen, wanted to create a program that would appeal to entire families, no ...

'' premiered and when '' Aaron Stone'' and ''

Zeke and Luther Zeke is a masculine given name and nickname, sometimes a shortened form (hypocorism) of Ezekiel, which may refer to: People * Caleb Bailey (nickname "Zeke", 1898-1957), US Marine Corps brigadier general and athlete *Zeke Bella (1930–2013), Amer ...

'' joined the main program line-up. In April 2004, she was named president of the Disney/ABC Television Group. In this role, Sweeney is responsible for Disney's entertainment and news television properties globally. These include the

ABC Television Network The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Califor ...

, which encompasses

ABC Entertainment The American Broadcasting Company (ABC) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It is the flagship property of the ABC Entertainment Group division of The Walt Disney Company. The network is headquartered in Burbank, Calif ...

, ABC Kids,

ABC Daytime ABC Daytime (sometimes shortened to ABC-D or ABCD) is a division responsible for the daytime programming block on the ABC Network and syndicated programming. The block has historically encompassed soap operas, game shows and talk shows. Histor ...

ABC Sports ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet. ABC or abc may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting * American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster ** Disney–ABC Televisi ...

and

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

;

ABC Studios ABC Signature is an American television production studio that is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a division of Walt Disney Television, which is part of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Company. ...

, which is the television production division of the Disney-ABC Television Group; and Disney ABC Cable Networks Group, comprising

The Disney Channel Disney Channel, sometimes known as simply Disney, is an American pay television channel that serves as the flagship property of Disney Branded Television, a unit of the Disney General Entertainment Content division of The Walt Disney Compan ...

Worldwide—which has grown to 24 wholly owned international channels—Toon Disney, SOAPnet, ABC Family and Jetix. She oversees Walt Disney Television Animation, Buena Vista Worldwide Television and Walt Disney Television International, and has responsibility for managing Disney's equity interests in

Lifetime Entertainment Services Lifetime Entertainment Services (LES) is an American entertainment industry company, whose media properties are focused on women. Lifetime Entertainment Services is a subsidiary of A&E Networks, a joint venture of Hearst Communications (50%) an ...

, and A&E Television Networks. Sweeney also oversaw the successful launch of the 24-hour animation channel Toon Disney in April 1998, and built it to its current reach of more than 52 million homes in the United States. Less than two years later, in January 2000, she oversaw the launch of SOAPnet, the 24-hour soap opera network now seen in more than 61.4 million homes.

Awards and honors

*Women in Cable & Telecommunications Executive of the Year (1994), Woman of the Year (1997), Advocate Leader Award (1998) *STAR Award from American Women in Radio and Television in 1995. *Inducted into the

American Advertising Federation The American Advertising Federation (AAF), headquartered in Washington, D.C., is the oldest national advertising trade association A trade association, also known as an industry trade group, business association, sector association or industry ...

's Advertising Hall of Achievement in 1996. *Lucy Award from

Women in Film Los Angeles The Women in Film Crystal + Lucy Awards—first presented in 1977 by the now–Los Angeles chapter of the Women in Film organization—were presented to honor women in communications and media. The awards include the Crystal Award, the Lucy Awar ...

in 2002. *Muse Award from New York Women in Film & Television in 2004. *Inducted into the

Broadcasting & Cable ''Broadcasting & Cable'' (or ''Broadcasting+Cable'') is a weekly telecommunications industry trade magazine published by Future US. Previous names included ''Broadcasting-Telecasting'', ''Broadcasting and Broadcast Advertising'', and ''Broadcas ...

"Hall of Fame" in 2005. She has also been awarded the Cable Television Public Affairs Association's President's Award, been named the " Most Powerful Woman in Entertainment" by ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Hollywood film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade paper, and in 2010 switched to a weekly larg ...

'', one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in Business" by '' Fortune'', and one of "

The World's 100 Most Powerful Women Since 2004, the American business magazine ''Forbes'' compiled an annual list of the 100 most powerful women in the world. It is edited by notable ''Forbes'' journalists, including Moira Forbes, and is based on visibility and economic impact. F ...

" by ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

''.

Personal life

Active in organizations both inside and outside of the cable industry, Sweeney is a board member of A&E Television Group, Netflix, the

Museum of Television & Radio The Paley Center for Media, formerly the Museum of Television & Radio (MT&R) and the Museum of Broadcasting, founded in 1975 by William S. Paley, is an American cultural institution in New York with a branch office in Los Angeles, dedicated to ...

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

and an honorary chair of Cable Positive. Sweeney is married to Philip Miller and they have two children, Christopher and Rosemary. Christopher is on the

autism spectrum The autism spectrum, often referred to as just autism or in the context of a professional diagnosis autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental condition (or conditions) characterized by difficulti ...

. Sweeney is a

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...

and attends St. Monica Church in California.

References

External links

Disney-ABC Television Group
* The Wall Street Journal, 10APR2006, page A1

at The Walt Disney Company
Profile
from the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sweeney, Anne 1957 births American entertainment industry businesspeople American Roman Catholics American women chief executives American chief executives in the media industry College of New Rochelle alumni Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Living people People from Kingston, New York American Broadcasting Company executives Women television executives Presidents of the American Broadcasting Company Nickelodeon executives Disney executives Netflix people Presidents of Disney Channel Women in Entertainment Power 100