Oxygen, which advises its
viewers to "live out loud," will turn up the volume in 2010.
Oxygen Media executives
introduced a programming slate that increases original production by 35% and
talked up the network's ratings and ad sales milestones.
National ad sales revenue
increased 15% year-to-year. Digital ad revenue grew 106%. Last January,
Oxygen.com broke the million mark for unique visitors. Oxygen mobile increased
208% in page views year-to-year. And first quarter 2010 was the net's highest
rated in history.
"We broke every ratings
record on every platform," said Jason Klarman, general manager, Oxygen Media.
The upfront was held at
the elegant Allen Room at Jazz at Lincoln Center's
Rose Hall, where enormous silver bobbles - including a handbag and a stiletto,
the armor of "Generation O" - dangled from the ceiling.
Tori Spelling and Dean
McDermott stood atop a 15-foot high wedding cake to promote their new program Tori and Dean: Weddings. (Oxygen has
greenlit the pilot.) And the sisters behind New Jersey dress shop Diane & Co. and
stars of the new series Jersey Couture
appeared with a dozen of their most ostentatious creations many festooned with
varying degrees of rhinestones.
Oxygen executives
introduced four new series for 2010: Jersey
Couture, premiering June 1; Hair
Battle Spectacular, which pits hair designers against one another in a
battle to create the most over-the-top 'do; House
of Glam, about celebrity image agency B Lynne Group; and a project about
the women behind media mogul Russell Simmons.
In addition to Tori and Dean: Weddings, Oxygen has
greenlit a pilot for Who Wears it Best,
which features a runway with trap-door through which the loser is dropped.
Series in development
include Bachelorette Party, about a
Las Vegas-based event planning company; and makeover intervention Make Me Under.
Returning series include:
Bad Girls Club, which will head to Miami for its fifth
season; a fifth season of Tori &
Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood; and a second season of Dance Your Ass Off, which premieres June 7.
The network, part of NBC
Universal women's and lifestyle brands, is up 73% in the 18-49 demographic
since the NBCU acquisition in 2007. With a median age of 38, it has
the youngest viewers among competing female targeted networks
including Lifetime and WE TV. The Oxygen viewer is also an "Alfa consumer,"
said Klarman, which has brought new advertisers to the network including
Target, Chrysler, Boost Mobile and Ikea.
"All women are not
created equal," said Susan Malfa, senior VP of ad sales, Oxygen Media.
"Oxygen has the youngest, most affluent viewers of any women's network."
