Oxygen

World Screen Weekly, February 8, 2007

COUNTRY: U.S.

OWNERSHIP: Oxygen Media

NUMBER OF SUBSCRIBERS: More than 71 million subscribers in the U.S.

LAUNCH DATE: February 2, 2000

DESCRIPTION: Oxygen is the only cable network owned and operated by women. It was launched to fill a void in the television landscape at the time—networks geared towards younger women aged 18-49. The channel premiered a social networking site this January, and its first social broadband channel, SheDidWhat.tv. VOD content has also been available from the network for three years.

FOUNDER & CEO, OXYGEN MEDIA: Geraldine Laybourne

PRESIDENT & COO: Lisa Gersh

PRESIDENT, PROGRAMMING & MARKETING: Debby Beece

PROGRAMMING STRATEGY: Oxygen sets itself apart from other female-targeted networks because its programs are geared towards younger women, especially those who are “definitely more on the maverick side, more on the irreverent and rebellious side,” says Debby Beece, the president of programming and marketing at Oxygen.

While original programming accounts for only 40 percent of Oxygen’s programming, it is well received by the audience, explains Beece. “Our original shows tend to be a little bit edgier, a little bit funnier, a little bit more young-skewing than cable.”

The network has garnered high ratings off of its original reality shows like The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, a series which follows former model Janice Dickinson as she endures the trials and tribulations of running her own modeling agency; and The Bad Girls’ Club, from the producers of The Real World about seven “bad” girls who are put in a house together and the adventures that follow. “Young people have an unending appetite for reality,” adds Beece. Currently, the network’s highest-rated show is The Bad Girls’ Club. Overall, Oxygen garners an average audience share of about 39 percent among its target 18-49 demographic.

One way Oxygen differentiates itself from other channels is through the type of personalities and characters that inhabit its shows. “We tend to be more focused on women who are big and loud and unusual and different and really aren’t necessarily the people you see on TV all the time,” says Beece.

Beece also points to the huge success of Mo’Nique’s F.A.T. Chance, a plus-sized beauty pageant hosted by comedienne Mo’Nique in which 10 plus-size women compete for the title of Miss F.A.T and the chance to take home a $50,000 cash prize. It will expand from a one-off two-hour special to series form this summer. Beece describes the host of the show, comedienne Mo’Nique, as someone who is “very relatable and accessible and real” and “hits a nerve with the plus-size audience.”

Oxygen’s longest-running show, Talk Sex with Sue Johanson, a live call-in show featuring sex expert Sue Johnson, has been on the air for six years. Girls Behaving Badly, an original all-girl comedy show featuring a group of female pranksters, has aired for four seasons on Oxygen, and is currently in syndication in every market in the country on weekends.

Original movies such as Romancing the Bride starring Laura Prepon, former star of That 70’s Show, has done well for the network. Fight Girls, Oxygen’s first reality movie, was also a hit, and will expand into a series this summer. The movie follows female fighters as they train in the martial art of Muay Thai kickboxing.

Half-a-dozen original documentaries have also aired since the network’s inception, including two post 9/11 documentaries: Inshallah: Diary of An Afghan Woman, about an Afghani-American woman’s humanitarian relief efforts for her native country, and Women of Rockaway, centered around the women of the Rockaway community who lost their loved ones in the aftermath of the attacks.

Among the acquired programs, sitcoms featuring assertive female leads such as Grace Under Fire, Living Single, Roseanne, A Different World and Cybill have fared well in Oxygen’s daytime slate. And in late night, The Tyra Banks Show is extremely popular among young women.

WHAT’S NEW: In March, the network will debut a new documentary series entitled Who Cares About Girls? hosted by Lisa Ling that focuses on how the world treats girls, ranging from the daughters of incarcerated mothers to exploited children in India. The first installment of the series, Mothers In Prison—And The Daughters Left Behind will premiere on March 25, and will be followed by Hidden Away: Slave Girls of India in late spring.

Oxygen also continues to satisfy viewers’ appetites for reality with the premiere of Tori & Dean: Inn Love in March. The new reality series follows Tori Spelling, daughter of the late Aaron Spelling, as she invests her father’s $800,000 inheritance into opening an inn with her new husband, Dean McDermott.

Beece is also excited about the launch of the social networking site Oomph.net and the broadband channel, SheDidWhat.tv. “You do a whole host of things that aren’t related to television. It’s really a very interactive and holistic approach to what women want online.”