History Channel Plans Short Mini-Series Backed by Ancestry to Accompany ‘Lincoln’ Documentary

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorWhile A+E’s History Channel sets out to tell the story of Abraham Lincoln in a documentary over three nights  it will also tell the stories of formerly enslaved people who were also an important part of that era in a mini-series backed by one of its advertisers.Ancestry is sponsoring a three-part miniseries that will accompany the Lincoln work, which debuts February 20, the latest in A+E’s efforts to craft bespoke programming segments that burnish ad messages while at the same time keeping viewers tuned to the programing for which they originally came.“To me, this is not a commercial break, this is not a ‘brought to you by,’” says David DeSocio, executive vice president of ad sales marketing and partnerships at A+E Networks, in a recent interview. “It’s a continuation of the story, but on a very personal level.” Each of the content segments accompanying the “Lincoln” project will be introduced by Christy Coleman, executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation in Williamsburg, VA, and a contributor to the documentary.

In each vignette, descendants of formerly enslaved people in the U.S. discovery family connections using recently added Freedman’s Bureau records on Ancestry.

They discuss these findings with Nicka Sewell-Smith, a professional genealogist.“More than 100 years have passed,” since Lincoln was U.S.

President says Sewell-Smith, in an interview,. “But there are still relatives of people living who have been affected by the decisions that were made” during his time.A+E pursues new commercial-and-content hybrids as traditional TV networks try to offer new kinds of advertising to an audience that is increasingly wary of traditional promotional formats.