Gerry's Back: Laybourne, Carsey-Werner Venture to Offer Oxygen to Women

Gerry Layborne's Oxygen Media entered into a joint venture with Hollywood production powerhouse Carsey-Werner to launch Oxygen, a non- fiction net targeted toward women, which reportedly has already received informal analog carriage commitments from TCI (TCOMA). "It's TCI's last greatest analog launch," a person "close to TCI" told Variety, forecasting a Labor Day '99 introduction. At first glance, the net appears to be a competitive threat to Lifetime, on whose board Laybourne sat during her short tenure at Disney Cable, yet observers of the programming market agree that there is room for all. "People keep coming after us and say they are going to chop away at us, but we continue to grow and maintain our demo," a Lifetime exec says. "As we've gotten more competition, we still grow. That tells us that there's plenty of room for a genre that we have pioneered." Another observer was more blunt. "I'll be retired by the time Laybourne gets Lifetime's distribution." Still, Oxygen will have high-level buzz associated with Laybourne and her reputation built growing Nickelodeon. Also, with Oxygen Media's deals for 3 womencentric Web sites last month, expect the inclusions of online components, providing a different feel for the net, complemented by the TV experience of strong partner Carsey-Werner. Though its specialty has been sitcoms, its stereotype-challenging programming (e.g., "Bill Cosby Show" and "Roseanne") and production infrastructure provide valuable assets to the venture. "This is a formidable, exciting team," an MSO exec said. "They've got the pieces to be a major player in an under-served market."