Oxygen: Inflated Expectations?

Maybe women don't need more women's programming

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By Richard Siklos

February 7, 2000 at 5:00 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

The setting: A pre-Christmas party at Oxygen Media Inc.'s Sunset Boulevard production studio. The mission: to woo cable-system operators to carry Oxygen's startup cable-TV network for women. The music: Whitney Houston's I'm Every Woman, pumped through loudspeakers. The pitch: "Men watch TV with one hand down their pants and the other on the [TV remote] control," TV producer and Oxygen co-founder Caryn Mandabach tells the group. "Women watch TV with a Krispy Kreme donut in one hand and a martini in the other--and they don't need a remote because they're just watching Oxygen!"

Clearly, this was no time for subtlety. After all, to get Oxygen airborne, close to $450 million had been raised and 560 people hired. Yet for all the hype, resources, and talent behind it--including Nickelodeon founder Geraldine Laybourne, TV hitmaker Carsey-Werner-Mandabach Co., and media icon Oprah Winfrey--Oxygen is about to launch with a whimper: Only 10 million of the nation's nearly 100 million households with cable-TV will carry the channel when it makes its debut on Feb. 2, and its Web site, in operation since last year, isn't among the top Net destinations for women.