Zeroing In on What Women Watch

What do women want? That’s what cable television is trying to figure out.

Women used to want life as it should be, according to the thinking behind the Romance Classics cable network. Now, Romance Classics, whose centerpiece was a lineup of romantic movies, is set to become WE: Women’s Entertainment. It seems the research showed that women are more interested in life as it is, and how to make it easier.

Cable viewing is growing by leaps and bounds, and the medium has more and more money to spend on original programming and marketing. But the competition is stiffer, too: Where once there was a single sports channel and a lone kids’ outlet, each niche now gets subdivided into several channels all pursuing a similar audience.

Enter the branding people, whose job it is to help viewers distinguish between “Intimate Portraits,” “Cool Women” and “Who Does She Think She Is?”--the women’s profile shows airing respectively on Lifetime, WE: Women’s Entertainment and Oxygen.

The women’s category is particularly tricky, because most channels, including the broadcast networks, are targeted to attract the attention of a broad swath of women. For years, Lifetime carved out a niche for itself with a general-interest network marketed to women.

Then in February Oxygen came along, promising more service-oriented fare--how to handle money, morning yoga classes--and a hipper attitude, as well as interaction with Internet users who would help shape the channel. With Oxygen off to a slow start, Romance Classics is looking to expand its profile by becoming WE: Women’s Entertainment.

The Romance Classics changeover, which has been taking place gradually in the last year, will be official on April 1. “We changed because women changed,” says Kate McEnroe, president of Rainbow Media Holdings’ AMC Networks, parent of WE: Women’s Entertainment. The lineup, aimed at women who are playing multiple roles in life and have little free time, includes more general-entertainment movies but also series such as “Cool Women”; “Journey Women Off the Map,” about real women traveling alone; and “Style World,” hosted by model Rachel Hunter.

The new channel’s first movie--”Yellow Bird,” produced by Faye Dunaway--is in production. WE has also partnered with its sister network, Independent Film Channel, and IFC Films, producer of “Boys Don’t Cry,” on theatrical films that will premiere on WE.

Although the network’s viewership currently isn’t measured by Nielsen Media Research because Romance Classics doesn’t carry commercials, it is widely expected to eventually become advertiser-supported in its new incarnation. Likewise, Oxygen will be rated some time in 2001.

To McEnroe, the field is hardly crowded and the channels couldn’t be more distinct. Oxygen, she says, is “telling women how to live their lives. Our woman doesn’t want to be told how to live life, because she’s too busy. She wants solutions.” (The network even rejected new names such as Breeze and Lilypad, she said, “because the women we are targeting are too busy to say, ‘What does that mean?’ ”)

As for the differences with Lifetime, McEnroe said WE’s goals are different, with more reality-based programming and “more inspiration and aspiration. Some women like to watch programming because other women’s lives aren’t as productive or flourishing as theirs. It makes them feel better. We have no women in distress. We’re more a celebration of great accomplishments, of ordinary women doing extraordinary things.”

Countered Lifetime President Carole Black: “Our most popular films tell true stories of strong women who overcome adversity, which our viewers tell us are inspiring and empowering. Women are very smart and we are honored that they choose to spend theirprecious free time with us.”

Indeed, despite the new competition, Lifetime has enjoyed a good year. The network is now available in 78 million households, up from 73 million a year ago. (Romance Classics is seen in 37 million homes and just announced cable system carriage agreements, including one with Charter Communications, that will bring it to about 45 million. Oxygen is carried in 12.3 million homes, with commitments to be in 32 million by the end of 2002.)

Lifetime was also one of the few large cable networks to see its ratings go up in 2000, with the network’s total day household ratings up by 10%. The network also tied for honors as the second-most-popular cable outlet behind Nickelodeon for the total day. In November, Lifetime on average reached 1.27 million homes in prime time and 847,000 homes on a total-day basis.

“Any time you’re growing every month it’s a sign that viewers are liking what you’re doing,” Black said.

Lifetime’s original movies are becoming less formulaic and attracting higher-profile talent: A January project, “What Makes a Family,” stars Brooke Shields, Cherry Jones and Anne Meara in a true story of a gay woman fighting to regain custody of her child from the child’s grandparents. Its executive producers include Barbra Streisand and Whoopi Goldberg.

Goldberg is also executive producer of Lifetime’s new drama “Strong Medicine,” which deals with women’s health issues and launched this season as basic cable’s top-rated original drama. Another new drama about female cops, “The Division,” makes its debut in January.

The network had some misses. “Lifetime Live,” a midday talk and news show, booked interesting guests--including the presidential candidates--but its ratings weren’t what they should be and the show is being retooled into a taped format. After four years carrying WNBA women’s basketball games, Lifetime will relinquish those rights to ESPN2 next season, although it will still carry a program about the players.

The gains have also come at a price. Marketing efforts have almost doubled and the public affairs and communications budget has tripled in the last couple of years as the competitive environment has toughened. WE: Women’s Entertainment, which has an advantage because it can be promoted on sister networks American Movie Classics, Bravo and IFC, has its own plans for a multimillion-dollar marketing push in mid-January.

Meanwhile, Oxygen just got an infusion of $100 million from Vulcan Ventures to help it into its second season. Its Web offerings, suffering from the same funding crises that have afflicted much of the dot-com world, have been trimmed and centralized.

The TV lineup is evolving, with such new programs as “Daily Remix,” a genre-crossing music show; “Who Does She Think She Is?,” biographical specials on women in power; and reruns of the hit syndicated show “Xena: Warrior Princess.” A new movie package includes such titles as “Waiting to Exhale” and “The Piano.” “Dot.Comedy,” which was to air first on ABC and then Oxygen, was dropped by the former after one ratings-poor airing but will play on Oxygen as planned in January.

If the women’s category seems crowded now, it’s only going to get more so. Lifetime, which already has a Lifetime Movie Network that reaches more than 12 million homes, has tested and is about to give the go-ahead to a third network, which it declined to identify.

For Lifetime’s Black, a former Procter & Gamble marketer, the key to success in women’s cable is the same as with toothpaste. It starts with listening to women, she said, and “if you are real clear what you’re about and then you deliver on your promise, they’ll be there for you.”