Lifetime (TV network)

There were two television channels that preceded Lifetime in its current incarnation. Daytime, originally called BETA, was launched in March 1982 by Hearst-ABC Video Services.[4][5][6] The cable service operated four hours per day on weekdays. The service was focused on alternative women's programming.[5] The following year, the Cable Health Network was launched as a full-time channel in June 1982 with a range of health-related programming.

Lifetime was established on February 1, 1984, as the result of a merger of Hearst/ABC's Daytime and Viacom's Cable Health Network.[4][5] A board for the new network was formed with equal representation from Hearst, ABC, and Viacom, and the board elected Thomas Burchill as the new network's first CEO.[7] It was not an initial success, reportedly losing $36 million in its first two years of operation, and did not become profitable until 1986.[8] The channel suffered from low viewership, with a poll reportedly finding that some TV viewers erroneously believed it carried religious content.[8]

Ruth Westheimer

In 1985, Lifetime started branding itself as "Talk Television", with a nightly lineup of talk shows and call-in programs hosted by people including Regis Philbin and Ruth Westheimer (known as "Dr. Ruth"). In the process, the creators dropped the apple from the logo.

During the 1980s and early 1990s, Lifetime devoted itself on Sundays to the airing of in-depth medical programs—and advertising—for physicians under the banner of Lifetime Medical Television (LMT). As early as 1990, however, plans were floated to move LMT to another channel, with TLC and CNBC being considered.[9][10] Lifetime began programming Sundays on August 1, 1993.[11]

In 1988, Lifetime hired Patricia Fili as its head of programming. In the first three years of her tenure, she changed 60 percent of Lifetime's programming, by her own estimate.[8] In addition to overhauling Lifetime's signature talk show, Attitudes, by hiring a new producer and refocusing it on current women's issues, Fili acquired the rights to syndicated network hits like Moonlighting and L.A. Law. She also oversaw the production of the first Lifetime movies ever made, along with carrying the final three seasons of the Blair Brown–starring dramedy The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd from NBC after the network canceled it. The network also showed movies from the portfolios of its owners, Hearst, ABC, and Viacom.[7] In 1991, reporter Joshua Hammer stated, "Considered one of cable TV's backwaters, [...] Lifetime network was replete with annoying gabfests for housewives and recycled, long-forgotten network television series, such as Partners in Crime and MacGruder and Loud. [...] Under Fili's direction, Lifetime has gone a long way toward shedding its low-rent image."[8]

Douglas McCormick became the network's president in 1993. He moved to make Lifetime a seven-day-a-week network by ending Lifetime Medical Television after nearly a decade of existence, and the next year, the channel relaunched with a new tagline, "Television for Women".[12] Lifetime began airing a limited amount of women's sports coverage, including the WNBA and the America's Cup, in which it sponsored the first women's crew team to compete. McCormick also strengthened the network's ties with women's organizations, such as the National Organization for Women, and began airing public service announcements about women's issues, such as breast cancer awareness.[7]

Meanwhile, the channel's original programming was aimed not just at women aged 24–44, but these women's spouses, who research showed watched the network in the evenings with their wives. This was done by making the male characters in Lifetime's original programming – such as the film series Spencer for Hire – more appealing to men by making them more masculine. These roles were more stereotypical than previous Lifetime movies, which usually featured women protagonists on their own. This helped Lifetime take advantage of a known bias in the Nielsen ranking system that favored "upscale" couples who shared a television set. By January 1995, Lifetime was the sixth most-highly rated subscription network by Nielsen.[7]

In 1996, TCI, one of the United States' largest subscription providers, announced that it would no longer carry Lifetime in certain markets to make room for the soon-to-be-launched Fox News Channel, in which TCI held a financial stake.[13] According to Lifetime executives, the network stood to lose up to one million subscribers due to TCI's move.[13] However, Lifetime published advertisements in some of the markets that would be affected – including Eugene, Oregon and Newport, Rhode Island – informing customers that TCI was removing the only network that was made for women.[7] After TCI customers called the company to complain, TCI cut back the number of homes that would lose Lifetime to approximately 300,000. Still, women's groups and politicians rallied behind Lifetime.[13] Colorado representative Patricia Schroeder called TCI's decision a "power play" between TCI chief executive John Malone and Fox executive Rupert Murdoch, and said, "Women kind of feel like they're being rolled over so that the guys who run these companies can make more money."[13]

Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank said that the decision showed that Fox "might have an agenda of its own that is anti-woman."[13] TCI executives were surprised and angry about the public's reaction. TCI's vice president of programming was quoted in The New York Times as saying, "I resent the implication that they are the women's network. Other networks come in to us and say Lifetime is not telling the truth. Lifetime is a women's channel only in name and advertising. [...] It programs for ratings." TCI senior vice president Robert Thomson stated that the reaction was "laughably out of scale," based on the fact that less than 10 percent of Lifetime's audience would be affected. TCI executives chalked the politicians' reactions up to lobbying by Lifetime (it being an election year), and suggested to the Times that in retaliation, Disney, one of Lifetime's parent companies, might have trouble launching a new network on TCI.[13] In 1997, it was reported that Lifetime had 67.7 million subscribers.[14]

On August 27, 2009, Lifetime was acquired by A&E Networks; the company was already owned by Lifetime's shareholders Hearst and Disney, but with additional shares owned by NBC Universal.[15][16][1][2] NBCUniversal divested its stake in A&E Networks in 2012, once again leaving the network as a Disney/Hearst joint venture.[17][18]

In addition to feature films, as well as made-for-television films previously broadcast on other networks, Lifetime is known for producing various original films of its own. These films are produced by the network's own Lifetime Pictures unit. A movie-focused spin-off channel, known informally as the Lifetime Movie Network or "LMN" due to its frequent rebrands, was launched in 1998.

In its early years, Lifetime occasionally broadcast coverage of women's professional sports. From its inaugural season in 1997 to 2000, Lifetime was one of three broadcasters of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), alongside NBC and ESPN. In 2000, Lifetime phased out its live broadcasts and replaced them with an original series documenting the lives of WNBA players. The network stated that it wanted to focus on "stories" rather than event coverage; the program package would move to ESPN2.[25][26] As part of an arrangement with Raycom Sports, the network also broadcast the LPGA's Tournament of Champions in 1998.[27]

In February 2017, A&E Networks acquired an equity stake in the National Women's Soccer League, and announced that Lifetime would broadcast a weekly, Saturday-afternoon game beginning in the 2017 season.[28][29]

Lifetime launched an HD simulcast on April 16, 2008.[30]

On May 30, 2012, Canadian television broadcaster Shaw Media announced that it would rebrand Showcase Diva, a Category B subscription specialty channel as the Canadian version of Lifetime under a licensing agreement with A+E Networks; Showcase Diva relaunched as Lifetime on August 27, 2012.[31]

AETN All Asia Networks plans to bring the Lifetime channel into Southeast Asia. The channel began broadcasting on June 14, 2013, 6.00 p.m with Astro and StarHub TV being two of the first providers to carry Lifetime in Asia. In July, available in Hong Kong now TV channel 520. And since September 1, 2014, Lifetime Asia airs in the Philippines on Dream Satellite TV channel 18 and SkyCable.[32]

A+E Networks UK launched a version of Lifetime for the UK and Ireland in November 2013.[33] The network was unsuccessful in the market, as Lifetime's program contractors instead distributed their programming on different networks, and it slowly lost rights over the years. The channel closed at 06:00 on March 1, 2021, after A+E Networks UK contracted with Discovery+ to carry Lifetime's original network-produced American programming in the UK and Ireland.[34]

Lifetime announced the launch of a Latin American version of the network, which launched on July 1, 2014, in association with Sony Pictures Television Latin America.[35] It supplanted the now-defunct Sony Spin channel (formerly known as Locomotion from 1996 to 2005 and Animax from 2005 to 2011) on the Amazonas satellite serving South America. Lifetime Latin America is currently distributed by Ole Distribution, currently based in Bogotá, Colombia, under license from A+E Networks Latin America and Sony Pictures Television Latin America. In Brazil, its programming is fully dubbed in Portuguese.

In Mexico, it was launched on October 1, 2014, replacing The Biography Channel.

A+E Networks launched the African version of Lifetime on Channel 131 on DStv on July 22, 2014.[36] On April 25, 2022, it was announced the channel alongside Lifetime Play will cease transmission in Africa by the end of May.[37]

A+E Networks launched a version of Lifetime for Israel on September 14, 2014, replaced The Biography Channel.[38]

On March 16, 2016, A&E Television Networks has announced that Lifetime (Turkey) channel was launched on April 26, 2016, in Turkey with cooperation of Multi Channel Developers. Lifetime Turkey is ceased operations on April 26, 2019.[39]

A localized version of Lifetime was launched on September 22, 2017, by A+E Networks Asia-Pacific and local company iHQ. Its programming primarily consists of Korean dramas, talk shows, and entertainment programs. Backstreet Rookie is the first Korean drama invested in by the channel.[40]

In 2019, A&E Television Networks will launch a version of Lifetime for the Middle East & Northern Africa region.

A&E Television Networks launched a version of Lifetime Movie Network for the Australia and New Zealand region on September 1, 2020, as a joint venture with the Foxtel network.[41][42]