Oxygen (TV channel)

Oxygen (branded on air as Oxygen True Crime) is an American television network owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group division and business segment of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. The channel primarily airs true crime programming and dramas targeted towards women.

Oxygen
CountryUnited States
HeadquartersComcast Building, New York City, New York
Programming
Language(s)English
Picture format1080i HDTV
(downscaled to letterboxed 480i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerNBCUniversal (Comcast)
ParentNBCUniversal Media Group
Sister channels
List
History
Founded1998
LaunchedFebruary 1, 2000 (2000-02-01)
Founder
Links
Websitewww.oxygen.com
Availability
Terrestrial
Digital terrestrial television
List
Streaming media
Sling, YouTube TV, fuboTV, DirecTV Stream, Hulu + Live TV
ClaroTV+
(requires subscription to access content)
  • ch.185

The network was founded by Geraldine Laybourne and Oprah Winfrey, and carried a format focused on lifestyle and entertainment programming oriented towards women, similar to competing channels such as Lifetime. NBCUniversal acquired the network in 2007; under NBCU ownership, the network increasingly produced reality shows aimed at the demographic, and was relaunched in 2014 to target a "modern", younger female audience. After the network experienced ratings successes with a programming block dedicated to such programming, Oxygen was relaunched in mid-2017 to focus primarily on true-crime programs. The channel initially operated as a cable network; in 2022, Oxygen began to also operate as a digital multicast television network on subchannels of NBC Owned Television Stations.

As of February 2015, approximately 77.5 million American households (66.5% of households with television) receive Oxygen.[1] Under its current format, the network primarily competes with Investigation Discovery and HLN.[2]

History
Until 2004, the entire word was in smaller case letters.

The privately held company Oxygen Media was founded in 1998 by former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, media executive Lisa Gersh, and producers Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach (of Carsey-Werner fame).[3] Laybourne was the service's founder, chairwoman, and CEO, staying with the channel until the NBCUniversal sale. The company's subscription network Oxygen launched on February 1, 2000.

The channel's first headquarters were at Battery Park City in New York City, near the World Trade Center. It was knocked off the air on September 11, 2001; the Time Warner Cable-owned regional news channel NY1 was broadcast to all Oxygen subscribers across the country until the studio reopened within a week after the attack.[4]

The network's operations were later consolidated in the Chelsea Market, a former Nabisco factory at 15th Street and Ninth Avenue in New York City. Oxygen's operations are now based at 30 Rockefeller Plaza as part of Comcast's consolidation of its newly owned NBC Universal properties.

The channel originally began as an interactive service focusing on original programming with some reruns (such as Kate & Allie), and featured a black bar at the bottom of the screen (referred to as "the stripe", occupying the bottom 12% of the screen) which would show various information (the interactive part involved the channel's website); the technique was cloned by Spike's precursor The New TNN; the stripe was eventually dropped. Prior to 2005, the channel carried a limited schedule of regular season WNBA games produced by NBA TV. The channel later began to focus chiefly on reality shows, reruns, and movies. For a time during the talk show's syndication run, Oxygen aired week-delayed repeats of The Tyra Banks Show. The yoga/meditation/exercise program Inhale was the last inaugural Oxygen program on air into the channel's NBC Universal era, albeit in repeats; it was cancelled in 2010.

Campus Ladies, Bliss, Oprah After the Show, Talk Sex with Sue Johanson, The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency, Snapped, Girls Behaving Badly and Bad Girls Club, a reality series, were the highlight shows of the network at this time. Oxygen launched with immediate DirecTV carriage, and arrived on Dish Network in early 2006 during that provider's carriage conflict with Lifetime.

Acquisition by NBC Universal
Oxygen logo (2008-2014)

On October 9, 2007, NBC Universal announced it would be purchasing Oxygen for $925 million.[5] The sale was completed on November 20, 2007. NBC Universal's cable division announced at an industry upfront presentation on April 23, 2008, that the channel would rebrand and unveil a new logo on June 17, 2008;[6][7] in the months since the sale the Oh! heading was dropped from the channel's visual branding. The logo premiered one week early on June 8, 2008.

For the 2008 Summer Olympics, Oxygen aired events and programming weeknights relating to gymnastics, equestrian, and synchronized swimming through NBC's Olympic broadcasts. On June 29, 2009, Oxygen premiered Dance Your Ass Off, a reality dance competition program in which overweight people dance while they lose weight; the program was cancelled after its second season due to low ratings. On April 5, 2010, Oxygen launched its second night of original programming with the fifth-season premiere of Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood.

Following the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast and the last-minute replacement of its subscription channel Style Network with Esquire Network (which was originally intended to replace G4) on September 23, 2013, some of its acquired programs were dispersed to Oxygen.[8]

Oxygen logo (2014–2017)

In April 2014, as part of a gradual re-focusing of NBCU's women's pay-TV networks by new division head Bonnie Hammer, and the appointment of Frances Berwick as the head of Oxygen and sister network Bravo, it was revealed that Oxygen would undergo a shift in its programming strategy to focus on a "modern", young female audience. Berwick explained that the new slate, which included upcoming series such as Fix My Choir, Funny Girls, Nail'd It, Sisterhood of Hip Hop, Street Art Throwdown, and planned spin-offs of Preachers of L.A., would "deliver on the freshness, authenticity, high emotional stakes and optimism that this demographic is looking for", and that many of the new programs would "appeal to things that are important in the lives of young, millennial women" and be "authentic".[9][10] As part of the re-focusing, the network also introduced a new slogan, "Very Real".[10]

Refocus on true crime

In December 2016, it was reported that NBCUniversal was considering reformatting Oxygen as a true crime-oriented channel. Since 2015, the genre had seen growing interest, especially among young adult women. The network had introduced a primetime block known as Crime Time on Fridays through Mondays (anchored by series such as Snapped), which had helped Oxygen see a 42% increase in total viewership, and a 22% increase among women 25–54.[11] NBCUniversal had reportedly been in talks with Dick Wolf—producer of NBC's Law & Order and Chicago franchises—to take an equity stake in a re-branded channel that could be led by reruns of the programs.[12][13] In January 2017, the network also began a foray into podcasting, with the true crime series Martinis & Murder.[14]

In February 2017, NBCUniversal confirmed that it planned to re-format Oxygen with a focus on true crime programming aimed towards women. The change was accompanied by a larger re-branding later in the year, with a new logo featuring the Oxygen name rendered in the style of yellow police tape.[15][16] Oxygen's new lineup was built largely around its existing library of unscripted true-crime programming, such as Snapped and its various spin-offs. NBCUniversal Lifestyle Networks president Frances Berwick explained that they had not ruled out adding off-network reruns of police procedurals, such as the Chicago, CSI and NCIS franchises as well (with the latter two having already been aired by the network by that time).[17][11][18] Berwick stated that the network had not determined the fate of the network's non-crime programming, such as Bad Girls Club, after the full re-branding takes effect.[11][18]

During its upfront presentations, Oxygen unveiled other new crime programs that were in development for the upcoming season, such the new Dick Wolf series Criminal Confessions, a docuseries on the murder of Jessica Chambers co-produced with NBCUniversal-funded BuzzFeed,[16] and a new season of Wolf's Cold Justice (which had been cancelled by TNT).[11][18] In September 2017, Oxygen and USA Network acquired off-network reruns of Chicago P.D., which were added to their schedules in October 2017.[19][20]

On May 2, 2022, NBC Owned Television Stations began to carry Oxygen as a subchannel on digital terrestrial television, primarily on NBC and Telemundo owned and operated stations.[21][22]

International

Oxygen programming can be seen in Canada on the CTV Drama Channel. Oxygen is also available in Australia on Fetch TV.

Programming

Current

Past

Syndicated

Oxygen HD

Oxygen HD was launched in March 2011 as high definition simulcast feed, eventually becoming the main feed with the standard definition feed being originated at the cable provider headend through downscaling. It is available through most providers.[26]

References
  1. Seidman, Robert (February 22, 2015). "List of how many homes each cable network is in as of February 2015". TV by the Numbers. Archived from the original on February 23, 2015. Retrieved March 14, 2015.
  2. Boboltz, Sara (July 6, 2017). "The Oxygen Channel Is Becoming A True-Crime, All The Time Network". HuffPost. Retrieved July 20, 2017.
  3. "Lisa Gersh Profile". Bloomberg L.P.
  4. "Oxygen Media Transmits New York One Signal to Its National Subscribers – New York Business Wire – September 13, 2001".
  5. Learmonth, Michael (October 10, 2007). "NBC U Sucks in Oxygen". Daily Variety. p. 1.
  6. "Show Tracker". The Los Angeles Times. April 23, 2008.
  7. Nordyke, Kimberly. "Oxygen rebrand caters to 'Generation O'". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on April 24, 2008.
  8. Rose, Lacey (September 9, 2013). "NBCU Switch-Up: Esquire Network to Take Over Style, Not G4 (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter.
  9. Goldberg, Lesley (April 8, 2014). "Oxygen Orders Seven New Series, Sets Network Rebranding". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 8, 2014.
  10. Goldberg, Lesley (September 24, 2014). "Oxygen Adds Five Series Ahead of Rebrand, Including Kardashian Minister Docuseries (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved April 2, 2017.
  11. Littleton, Cynthia (February 1, 2017). "Oxygen Surrenders to Crime Wave in Programming Strategy Revamp". Variety. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
  12. Andreeva, Nellie (December 12, 2016). "Oxygen Eyes Crime-Themed Makeover". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  13. Littleton, Cynthia (December 12, 2016). "NBCUniversal, Dick Wolf in Talks to Transform Oxygen Into Crime-Centric Channel (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
  14. Peterson, Tim (March 11, 2019). "'On the precipice of being a real business': NBCU's Oxygen wants to make money from podcasts". Digiday. Retrieved February 12, 2020.
  15. Petski, Denise (May 11, 2017). "Oxygen Expands Crime Programming Slate With Projects From Ice-T, Nancy Grace & More". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved May 13, 2017.
  16. Stanhope, Kate (May 10, 2017). "Oxygen Teams With Dick Wolf, Nancy Grace, Ice-T for Crime-Centered Slate". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 11, 2017.
  17. Umstead, Thomas (February 1, 2017). "Oxygen to Rebrand as A True Crime Channel". Multichannel News. Retrieved February 3, 2017.
  18. Goldberg, Lesley (February 1, 2017). "Oxygen Officially Rebranding as Crime-Focused Network". The Hollywood Reporter. United States. Archived from the original on February 1, 2017. Retrieved March 14, 2017.
  19. Littleton, Cynthia (September 23, 2017). "USA and Oxygen Acquire Rerun Rights to 'Chicago P.D.'". Variety. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  20. Hurley, Laura (December 18, 2017). "NCIS: New Orleans And Chicago P.D. Just Landed Big Syndication Deals". Cinema Blend. Retrieved December 20, 2017.
  21. "RabbitEars.Info".
  22. Oxygen Staff (May 2, 2022). "Think You Don't Have Access To Oxygen Hits Like 'Snapped' And 'Dateline'? Think Again". Oxygen Official Site. Archived from the original on 2022-05-02. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  23. Carlson, Adam (August 21, 2017). "The Mystery of Maura Murray, College Student Who Suddenly Vanished After 2004 Crash". People. United States. Retrieved August 22, 2017.
  24. Bibel, Sara (January 7, 2013). "Oxygen Picks Up 'Fat Girl Revenge,' 'Find Me My Man,' & 'Too Young To Marry?'". TV By the Numbers. Archived from the original on January 11, 2013. Retrieved January 7, 2013.
  25. Yohannes, Alamin (August 9, 2016). "Oxygen's Trans Reality Show 'Strut' to Debut in September". NBC News. Retrieved August 12, 2015.
  26. "TIME WARNER CABLE EXPANDS HIGH-DEFINITION CHANNEL LINE UP FOR NEW YORK CITY CUSTOMERS | Time Warner Cable | New York City". Time Warner Cable. Archived from the original on March 20, 2012. Retrieved March 4, 2011.
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