Oxygen Launches. No, not that Oxygen. This Oxygen.
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Breathe the Hype: Oxygen Launches
multichannel.com
By LINDA MOSS January 31, 2000
Geraldine Laybourne will breathe life into Oxygen,
her women's cable network, this week, as it
debuts in markets such as San Francisco;
Chicago; Denver; Dallas; Pittsburgh; Portland,
Ore.; and Seattle, home base of Paul Allen, a
$100 million backer.
Oxygen's launch Wednesday (Feb. 2) is certainly
one of the most anticipated and hyped in recent
memory. It's a risky undertaking -- a cable network
starting out with virtually 100 percent original
programming, 55 hours per week.
As such, media gadflies are waiting to see if
Oxygen's celebrated founder-partners -- former
Nickelodeon chief Laybourne, Oprah Winfrey and
TV-hit producers Marcy Carsey, Caryn Mandabach
and Tom Werner -- can repeat their huge
successes in other television venues at this
newbie network.
With Lifetime Television already commanding 75
million subscribers, it remains to be seen if cable
operators -- and viewers -- will provide enough
support for another women's outlet to make it
financially viable.
In the wake of Oxygen's debut, Lifetime is
relaunching its Web site and adding more
informational shows. With those moves, Lifetime is
taking on Oxygen on the start-up's own turf: the
convergence of TV, PCs and nonfiction
programming.
Candice Bergen, who is hosting a talk show for the
network, is among those slated to join Laybourne
and Winfrey at Oxygen's Manhattan headquarters
to pull the switch for the network at 8 p.m.
Wednesday. That's when live show Pure Oxygen
goes on the air.
Prior to that, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., the network
will still be cablecasting live, going behind the
scenes to offer a documentary-style look at the
hours leading up to its debut.
Laybourne, CEO of Oxygen Media, said Oxygen
will roll out to 10 million subscribers over the next
few months. It's a little trickier to calculate
specifically how many homes it will have on its
actual debut date this week.
"It's not as tidy as anyone would want," she said.
"It will take some months to have all of the
households up."
AT&T Broadband & Internet Services expects to
have Oxygen launched to more than 3 million
analog subscribers this week, according to an
MSO spokeswoman. Allen's Charter
Communications Inc. will roll the network out to
900,000 subscribers, a Charter spokeswoman
said.
Oxygen will also have rollouts on MediaOne Group
Inc. and Insight Communications Co. Inc. systems
-- the other MSOs it has carriage deals with.
In addition to markets such as Chicago and San
Francisco, Oxygen will also be launched in the
vicinities of Los Angeles; Detroit; Atlanta;
Tampa-St. Petersburg and Miami-Fort Lauderdale,
Fla.; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn.; Sacramento,
Calif.; St. Louis; and Baltimore.
Oxygen's business plan calls for it to be in 50
million homes in four years, according to
Laybourne. Right now, the network has
commitments for 25 million subscribers, she said.
But at its launch, Oxygen -- which claims that it
will seamlessly integrate its Web sites and TV
programming -- will be missing carriage in the
major media and financial capital of the world, New
York. So far, the network doesn't have any
affiliation deals with Time Warner Cable, which has
the Big Apple market.
This past Sunday, Oxygen Media was one of the
advertisers that anted up close to $2 million to air
a spot during the Super Bowl.
That commercial will direct viewers to Oxygen's
Web site, which will have been revamped over the
weekend, according to Laybourne. There will be a
section on the site referring to the TV network,
where viewers can enter ZIP codes, find out who
their cable operators are and send e-mails
requesting Oxygen.
Oxygen made the decision not to run an 800
number in its ad for viewers to call to ask their
cable operators to carry the network, Laybourne
said. "We decided that's way too hostile," she
added. "It's very annoying. It clogs up a cable
operator's phone line."
Nonetheless, some people who have previously
logged onto Oxygen's Web site got e-mails last
week with phone numbers for local cable operators
or direct-broadcast satellite companies. The
e-mails say that if the person doesn't have time to
call, they can go to the Web site, where "we'll have
the tools to make it easy for you to get your voice
heard."
Apart from Allen's Vulcan Ventures Inc., Oxygen
investors include Winfrey's Harpo Entertainment
Group, America Online Inc., The Walt Disney Co.
(ironically, a 50 percent-owner of Lifetime), LVMH
Möet Hennessy Louis Vuitton and Europ@web.
AOL's recently announced plans to acquire Time
Warner Inc. bode well for Oxygen's quest to
secure carriage with Time Warner Cable, which
has the valuable New York DMA.
AOL president Bob Pittman gave Laybourne, a
former schoolteacher, her big break at
Nickelodeon. "He gave me a shot at Nick, and I
didn't let him down," Laybourne said.
Oxygen will spend $400 million on programming
during its first four years, with about $100 million of
that earmarked for the first year.
Its program schedule kicks off with a morning yoga
show, Inhale. There will be some women's
documentaries during the day; a game show; an
afternoon block for teen-agers; sketch comedy; live
primetime signature show Pure Oxygen; and
Bergen's 10 p.m. interview show, Exhale.
Weekends will include fare such as shopping
block "SheCommerce" and sports-programming
block "We Sweat."
Lifetime has several changes in the works, the
timing of which, perhaps not coincidentally,
coincides with Oxygen's cable-network launch.
Lifetime will relaunch its Web site Feb. 24, and it
retained ZeniMax Media to develop new-media
opportunities. ZeniMax executive Sam Simon, the
Emmy Award-winning co-creator of The Simpsons,
has developed two animated characters, Tina and
Lulu, for Lifetime's site.
And Lifetime will premiere a live, daily, hour-long
information program, Lifetime Live, March 6.
Lifetime president Carole Black repeated what has
become her stock answer to reporters who ask her
about the new competition, Oxygen. She said
networks with a lot of women viewers, such as
Romance Classics and Food Network, are already
up and running and drawing more women to cable.
"What's happened to Lifetime is what happens to a
dominant brand in a growing category," Black told
critics attending the recent Television Critics
Association tour. "They've grown, but we've grown,
too."
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