Lifetime Television was born from the merger of two cable networks in 1984. Daytime, a joint venture of Hearst and ABC, and the Viacom-owned Cable Health Network, had both launched in 1982, but struggled in this early era of limited cable distribution as neither network reached a large enough audience to command sizable advertising revenue. The newly created Lifetime retained programming from the original networks, with a heavy reliance on advertiser-created series and specials, many which featured pharmaceuticals and other health products, such as hormone supplements and diet aids. By the late 1980s, Lifetime began establishing its identity by acquiring off-net syndication rights to Cagney & Lacey, and by continuing original production of a series canceled by NBC, The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd.

     The network experimented with other original dramatic series without success but began developing "World Premier Movies" produced originally for Life­ time in 1990, the form that most defined the network's reputation. These made-for-Lifetime films have shifted narrative focus slightly but formulaically rely on a plot centered on a female character (often played by an established, but fading television actress) facing a challenging personal and/or professional situation, but surmounting the obstacles by the film's conclusion. Most of the films are fictional, but some notable successes have been based on the lives of real women or news.

     Although its films and series implicitly named the network's focus for some time, Lifetime launched its signature "Television for Women" slogan in 1995, and continued to establish itself with films about female protagonists who struggle through crises to succeed in the end. Viacom sold its share of Lifetime to partners Hearst and Cap Cities/ABC in 1994, shortly before Cap Cities/ABC merged with the Walt Disney Company in 1995.

     Lifetime spent nearly $8 million developing four pilots in 1998, three of which aired during the 1998-99 television season. The investment paid off when the two-hour time slot in which the network scheduled the three series (Any Day Now, Maggie, and Oh Baby) increased the number of female l 8-to-49-year-old viewers by nearly 200,000 viewers per week (46 percent). Lifetime's development of comedy series has been unsuccessful, with Maggie failing in the first year and Oh Baby in the second. Any Day Now developed a core following and drew critical attention for its stories about ethnic difference and racism in American culture. Lifetime has since emphasized dramatic series, debuting Strong Medicine, a medical series featuring two female doctors working in a women's health clinic in 2000, and The Division, a detective procedural set in a predominately female squad in 2001 Throughout the 1990s, Lifetime attempted to appeal to a general fe­ male audience without emphasizing the fragmented and diversified nature of this group, yet provided some of the only non-white, non-upper-middle-class female characters on U.S. television.

     In the midst of experimenting with original programming, Lifetime entered another transitional phase. Despite six relatively successful years, Lifetime did not renew the contract of CEO Douglas Mc­Cormick, who had held the position since 1993, and named Carole Black the new Lifetime CEO in March 1999. Thus, Lifetime employed its first female CEO, recruiting Black from KNBC in Los Angeles, where she served as the station's general manager and was credited with bringing more women viewers to its newscasts. Black expanded the Lifetime programming budget to $236 million, a 20 percent increase over 1998.

     Positive critical reception and some audience gains by the original series that Lifetime schedules in a block on Sunday nights contributed to the rising status and viewership of the network, although its made-for­ Lifetime movies continue to reach the largest audience. This success led the network to create a second network, Lifetime Movie Network (LMN), in September 1998. Programming for LMN consists of movies, miniseries, and theatrical films from the Lifetime library, as well as some purchased from second-run distributors. Although early market surveys reported a ready audience for the network, with 93 percent of women who watched Lifetime aware of its films, the network had a slow start. Stymied mainly by lack of distribution, a year after its launch LMN reached only five million households. LMN increased its reach to over 15 million by mid-2001, the same year it launched another network, Lifetime Real Women. This network features reality programming such as Unsolved Mysteries, Intimate Portraits (Lifetime's self­ produced biography series), and films based on true stories, but receives limited distribution. Branching out with subnetworks has allowed the "mother" network to focus on narrative series.

Black inherited a solid network and expanded its gains. In 2001 Lifetime ranked 17th in projected revenue among all U.S. networks with $715 million. Life­ time also possesses a large potential audience base, reaching 83.8 million cable and satellite homes, approximately 90 percent of those available. Nielsen Media Research ranked Lifetime the second most watched cable network with an average of 992,000 viewers per day (behind Nickelodeon), and, more significantly, Lifetime drew an average of 1.58 million viewers in prime time, which earned it the distinction of the most watched cable network in 2001. Despite the current viability of the network, Black faces pressure to continue its growth and to prevent new competitors from eroding its grip on the female cabI audience. Lifetime now faces direct competition in th;! niche women's market with Oxygen Media launching in 2000 as an integrated cable and Web media company, and the rebranding of Romance Classics Net­ work as the Women's Entertainment Network (WE) in  2001.