• by Ken Liebeskind , April 11, 2001

What does a television network advertising executive say at an upfront presentation? "I spoke about ratings success, the Lifetime Movie Network, Lifetime Online and how women are where the money is and Lifetime is where the women are," says Lynn Picard, Lifetime's executive VP of sales. "Don't mess with us girls."

Picard says Lifetime's upfront presentation, held in New York, was a celebration, since the network, recently ranked number one among all cable networks, has lots to celebrate. It hosted a breakfast meeting for about 550 media buyers and clients at a New York hotel and will hold upfront presentations in Chicago and Los Angeles next week.

Carole Black, Lifetime's president/CEO, made the big announcement: that Lifetime will launch a new cable network. Lifetime Real Women, a 24-hour network devoted to reality programming, is scheduled to debut in late summer. It will be available for analog and digital distribution and offer two minutes for local advertising sales. The network will offer a mix of Lifetime and original programming.

When asked why Lifetime is launching a new network now, Picard said, "Cable operators want it. They've seen our success and the response the Movie Network gets from their customers. With the growth of digital distribution there's lots of opportunities for new networks."

When asked how quickly Lifetime will be able to get the network distributed, she said, "Distribution teams are out selling it to cable operators now. It depends on the deals they strike but there's lots of interest from cable operators. We're on a roll, the momentum's going."

The network will feature reality programming, but not the typical reality shows shown on other networks. "We've been doing reality programming forever, but now it's taking on a new meaning," Picard says. She said Lifetime's reality programs will be "unlike Survivor."

The network also announced a reality based line up for Saturday nights on the Lifetime network headed by a new series, Women Docs. It will also launch two weekly daytime original series later this year, a women's health series and a magazine show, Lifetime Now.

The purpose of an upfront presentation is to set up ad sales for next season. "We're open for business," Picard says, but adds, "the traditional upfront isn't moving yet." She is wary that advertisers may take advantage of their third quarter options and cancel advertising by May 1, 60 days before the beginning of the third quarter, which is when cancellations are due. They could cut advertising because of the slow economy as they've already done earlier this year. "But we're number one, so we're less affected," she says. But advertising cuts for the third quarter could affect the upfront market for next season, for psychological and other reasons, she says.

- Ken Liebeskind may be reached at kenrunz@aol.com