Because Oxygen TV, the new 24-hour, seven-days-a-week cable network geared toward women, is currently available in only 7 to 10 million cable homes, chances are you won't see it.
In any case, the new cable channel's lineup of TV programming (the company already has a Website, www.oxygen.com), bows tonight at 8 p.m. ET with a two-hour show called Pure Oxygen that offers news and commentary on parenting, business, health, style, home and entertainment. At the bottom of the screen, information will pop up to point viewers to the Web where they can get more information.
That will be followed by Exhale, an end-of-the-day talk show hosted by actress Candice Bergen. Other shows include Oprah's Oprah Goes Online, a morning yoga program and sports and comedy shows.
"We are so proud to introduce Oxygen, a network that is for women and by women--a network that women feel they've had a hand in creating," CEO Geraldine Laybourne, who previously headed Disney-ABC cable networks and Nickelodeon, said in a statement.
Other big-name partners include Oprah Winfrey and Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach, the creators of the Cosby Show and Roseanne.
The founders of Oxygen are staying away from the reruns, tear-jerking TV movies and other cheesy fare of the other women's network, Lifetime Television (with its much larger audience of 75 million homes), with offerings like As She Sees It, a series that will broadcast award-winning documentary films by and about women.
Oxygen didn't forget the little women who watch cable TV. Trackers was created as a place where girls can get together on TV and on the Web to "motivate each other and make inspired choices about what to play, what to watch, what to do--without all that sugar and spice," or so says the press release.
In conjunction with the TV launch today, the company also added five new Websites to its online network. Although cable stations geared toward women are few, there is plenty of online competition from Websites like iVillage, Women.com and CondeNet.
"The buzz has been generated because of the people involved. Now everybody will take a wait-and-see attitude. There's a great expectation they'll have to live up to," Bob Flood, DeWitt Media's director, says in Variety.
And while industry opinion is divided over whether there's enough space for, or interest in, a second femme-focused channel, based on the phenomenally successful track record of its founders, Oxygen just might be breathing for a long time.