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MICHAEL REYNOLDS
The battle among the women's cable networks intensified with new shows, new subs and a new name on display at the Western Cable Show.
Rainbow Media's Romance Classics has been renamed WE: Women's Entertainment, a moniker that will be gradually introduced before an official on-air launch April 1. The network also announced new carriage deals with Charter and Adelphia Communications, fresh programming and a movie production alliance with IFC Films.
Oxygen Media, meanwhile, unveiled its second season slate of programming, replete with five new original series and a pair of acquisitions.
As for the reigning women's queen, Lifetime Television, continued its ratings roll, notching a 7% gain in primetime to a 1.6 average in November, good for a fourth place tie among basic networks. Lifetime also notched a 10% gain in total day to a 1.1, marking the 16th consecutive month it has grown in that measurement.
Among the challengers, WE appeared to be making more headway with operators.
AMC Networks president Kate McEnroe says WE is not offering launch incentives and the deals are being driven by "consumer demand" for the service. "Operators have been receptive to our approach. Too many networks take on a new name without adding strong content."
Charter will roll out WE over the next few years to 80% of Adelphia's homes. McEnroe says there will be a strong Adelphia rollout January through March. The balance will come over a three-year period. Charter has already begun adding WE to systems, reaching 3.2 million homes.
WE is in 37 million homes and, "with the commitments we have right now," is expected to reach 46 million within two years, McEnroe says. She says there is plenty of room to grow with MSOs such as Comcast and Time Warner, where the service is in 1.5 million and 500,000 homes respectiely.
Oxygen, through deals with AT&T, Cox, Charter, Insight and DirecTV is in north of 12 million homes, says C.J. Kettler, president-advertising and affiliate sales.
Kettler says Oxygen has commitments to be in 32 million homes in 2002.
"We are completely on track. We're hitting all our metrics. We're very pleased with the progress we've made," she says in response to criticism that distribution has come slowly to the channel, which has little presence in New York or Los Angeles.
Oxygen is "ringing Los Angeles" through Charter carriage in Burbank, Malibu and Glendale, Calif. Kettler says that through the Adelphia deal, which was inked in early November, Oxygen will be in "L.A. proper" in 2001.
McEnroe says WE will aspire to provide inspiration, relaxation and relief for today's time-harried women, who are juggling multiple roles, including a growing presence in the workforce.
WE: Women's Entertainment will bow with such series as Cool Women, profiles of ordinary women doing extraordinary things and Journey Women Off The Map, tracking women traveling alone in search of adventure. Great Romances and Everyday Elegance are the only series migrating from Romance to WE.
WE will also feature a number of specials and movie franchise "Cinematherapy." WE has cherry-picked more than 700 films to secure what it calls the "most comprehensive library of women's interest films."
The network will also produce original movies and has teamed up with IFC Films, run by sister network Independent Film Channel, to develop future films.
* OpenTV in USA: OpenTV scored its first deal to have its interactive TV software used in the United States. USA Media Group will upgrade its Motorola DCT-2000 set-top boxes in Northern California using the OpenTV software. USA Media will offer on-demand news, t-commerce and other interactive services. It has 98,000 subscribers in six Western states.
* Election inflates ratings: Benefiting from the prolonged presidential election controversy, CNN and Fox News Channel vaulted into cable's top 10 in primetime during November. CNN, scoring a 167% jump from November 1999, finished in a three-way tie for fourth with a 1.6 average, while FNC tied for ninth with a 1.3 average, a 225% leap from the prior year. For its part, MSNBC, racking up a 200% gain to a 0.9, wound up in a 13th place tie during November. The top three cable nets in November all saw their averages decline. ESPN was off 20% but still topped the Nielsen chart with a 2.0. TBS, down 10%, placed second with a 1.9, followed by USA, which fell 15% to a 1.7 average.
* TNN adds XFL, Trek: TNN: The National Network is going to extremes as it shoots into space. Viacom's revamped general entertainment network has tackled exclusive cable rights to XFL, the joint venture between World Wrestling Federation Entertainment and NBC. TNN will telecast the fledgling league's games live on Sunday afternoons from Feb. 11 through April 8. TNN has also acquired the cable rights to a trio of Star Trek series and five films featuring the crew of the Starship Enterprise. Under the deal with sister company Paramount, TNN will begin airing 179 episodes of The Next Generation in fall 2001. Deep Space Nine's 176 episodes will start in fall 2004, while 172 episodes of Voyager will debut on TNN in late 2006. On the featue frontier, TNN bought the rights from Paramount to: Star Trek: The Motion Picture; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan; Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home; and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier.
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