1984 1984 02 01 owned by lifetime entertainment services a e networks hearst corporation the walt disney company picture format 1080i hdtv downgraded to letterboxed 480i for sdtv feed slogan my story is on lifetime country united states broadcast area national headquarters new york city new york replaced daytime cable health network lifetime medical television sister channel s lmn lifetime real women website www.mylifetime.com availability satellite directv 252 sd hd dish network 108 sd hd cable available on most u.s. cable providers check local listings iptv verizon fios 640 hd 140 sd zazeen canada 117 hd at & t u verse 1360 hd 360 sd vmedia canada 83 hd streaming media tvplayer watch live uk only tvplayer plus subscription required sling tv internet protocol television lifetime is an american cable and satellite television channel that is part of lifetime entertainment services a subsidiary of a e networks which is jointly owned by the hearst corporation and the walt disney company . 1 2 the channel features programming that is geared toward women or features women in lead roles . as of july 2015 approximately 95 020 000 american households 81.6 % of households with television receive lifetime . 3 contents 1 predecessors 1.1 daytime 1.2 cable health network 2 history 2.1 hearst abc viacom entertainment services 2.2 lifetime entertainment services 2.3 a e tv networks 3 programming 3.1 lifetime movies 4 international versions 4.1 canada 4.2 latin america and brazil 4.3 united kingdom & ireland 4.4 israel 4.5 asia 4.6 turkey 5 lrw 6 lifetime movie club 7 references 8 external links predecessors edit daytime edit daytime originally called beta was launched in march 1982 by hearst abc video services . 4 5 6 the cable service operated four hours per day on weekdays . the service was focused on alternative women s programming . 5 cable health network edit cable health network was launched as a full time channel in june 1982 with a range of health related programming . in november 1983 cable health network adopted a new name lifetime medical television . 5 history edit hearst abc viacom entertainment services edit lifetime was established on february 1 1984 as the result of a merger of hearst abc s daytime and viacom s lifetime medical television . 4 5 a board for the new network was formed with equal representation from hearst abc and viacom and the board elected thomas burchill as the new network s first ceo . 7 it was not an initial success reportedly losing 36 million in its first two years of operation and did not become profitable until 1986 . 8 the channel suffered from low viewership with a poll reportedly finding that some tv viewers erroneously believed it carried religious content . 8 in 1985 lifetime started branding itself as talk television with a nightly lineup of talk shows and call in programs hosted by people like regis philbin and dr. ruth westheimer . in the process the creators dropped the apple from their logo . in 1988 lifetime hired patricia fili as its head of programming . in the first three years of her tenure she changed 60 percent of lifetime s programming by her own estimate . 8 in addition to overhauling lifetime s signature talk show attitudes by hiring a new producer and refocusing it on current women s issues fili acquired the rights to syndicated network hits like moonlighting and l.a. law . she also oversaw the production of the first lifetime movies ever made along with carrying the final three seasons of the blair brown starring dramedy the days and nights of molly dodd from nbc after the network canceled it . the network also showed movies from the portfolios of its owners hearst abc and viacom . 7 in 1991 reporter joshua hammer stated considered one of cable tv s backwaters ... lifetime network was replete with annoying gabfests for housewives and recycled long forgotten network television series such as partners in crime and macgruder and loud . ... under fili s direction lifetime has gone a long way toward shedding its low rent image . 8 lifetime s best known logo . used from 1995 to 2006 . lifetime began airing a limited amount of women s sports coverage including the wnba and the america s cup in which it sponsored the first women s crew team to compete . mccormick also strengthened the network s ties with women s organizations such as the national organization for women and began airing public service announcements about women s issues such as breast cancer awareness . lifetime also adopted a new tagline . lifetime television for women . 7 logo used from 2008 to may 2 2012 . meanwhile the channel s original programming was aimed not just at women aged 24 44 but these women s spouses who research showed watched the network in the evenings with their wives . this was done by making the male characters in lifetime s original programming such as the film series spencer for hire more appealing to men by making them more masculine . these roles were more stereotypical than previous lifetime movies which usually featured women protagonists on their own . this helped lifetime take advantage of a known bias in the nielsen ranking system that favored upscale couples who shared a television set . by january 1995 lifetime was the sixth most highly rated cable network by nielsen . 7 lifetime entertainment services edit in 1996 tci one of the united states largest cable providers announced that it would no longer carry lifetime in certain markets to make room for the soon to be launched fox news channel in which tci held a financial stake . 9 according to lifetime executives the network stood to lose up to one million subscribers due to tci s move . 9 however lifetime published advertisements in some of the markets that would be affected including eugene oregon and newport rhode island informing customers that tci was removing the only network that was made for women . 7 after tci customers called the company to complain tci cut back the number of homes that would lose lifetime to approximately 300 000 . still women s groups and politicians rallied behind lifetime . 9 colorado representative patricia schroeder called tci s decision a power play between tci chief executive john malone and fox executive rupert murdoch and said women kind of feel like they re being rolled over so that the guys who run these companies can make more money . 9 massachusetts congressman barney frank said that the decision showed that fox might have an agenda of its own that is anti woman . 9 tci executives were surprised and angry about the public s reaction . tci s vice president of programming was quoted in the new york times as saying i resent the implication that they are the women s network . other networks come in to us and say lifetime is not telling the truth . lifetime is a women s channel only in name and advertising . ... it programs for ratings . tci senior vice president robert thomson stated that the reaction was laughably out of scale based on the fact that less than 10 percent of lifetime s audience would be affected . tci executives chalked the politicians reactions up to lobbying by lifetime and it being an election year and suggested to the times that in retaliation disney one of lifetime s parent companies may have trouble launching a new network on tci . 9 in 1997 it was reported that lifetime had 67.7 million subscribers . 10 a e tv networks edit on august 27 2009 a & e television networks acquired lifetime entertainment services . 1 2 lifetime s current logo when it debuted in may 2012 ; modified to its current version in april 2013 . in the may of 2012 lifetime unveiled a new logo and branding campaign . 11 the new slogan your life . your time . reflects how women value and experience time . 12 the new and current logo is the 11th in twenty years . 13 the logo was revamped and the tagline was dropped the following year . 14 programming edit main article list of programs broadcast by lifetime lifetime airs a mix of original broadcast content which comprise film reality such as dance moms and preachers daughters and dramatic programming such as devious maids and witches of east end and second run syndicated series such as how i met your mother and grey s anatomy . the network states that it is committed to offering the highest quality entertainment and information programming and advocating a wide range of issues affecting women and their families . 15 in the past lifetime used to air several game shows in daytime and early evenings including supermarket sweep shop til you drop and debt . lifetime also produced one original game show who knows you best starring gina st. john with a format based on the newlywed game ; it was canceled after one season . lifetime has also purchased the rights to programs that originally aired on broadcast networks and produced new episodes . in 1988 it bought the rights to the existing 26 episodes of the days and nights of molly dodd from its original broadcaster nbc and produced 13 additional episodes of the series . lifetime did not renew the show reportedly because of low ratings and the high cost to produce the program . 8 in late 2011 the network began to air new episodes of america s most wanted a program canceled in series form by fox at the end of the 2010 11 season 16 although special feature episodes continued to air intermittently on fox . lifetime aired more than 40 new episodes of the program before cancelling it in 2013 . 16 lifetime movies edit lifetime airs many movies targeted to women made for television films produced for the channel as well as those previously broadcast on other networks and some feature films both on the main network largely airing on weekends and on lifetime movie network a spin off digital cable and satellite channel that was launched in 1998 . international versions edit canada edit main article lifetime canada on may 30 2012 canadian television broadcaster shaw media announced that it would rebrand showcase diva a category b digital specialty channel as the canadian version of lifetime under a licensing agreement with a e networks ; showcase diva relaunched as lifetime on august 27 2012 . 17 on april 1 2016 shaw media was acquired by corus entertainment and as a result both lifetime canada and the canadian rights to the lifetime library of original programming are now owned by corus entertainment latin america and brazil edit lifetime latin america lifetime latin america logo launched july 1 2014 owned by a e networks sony pictures television country united states venezuela brazil language spanish portuguese broadcast area latin america replaced sony spin sister channel s a & e history h2 canal sony axn website lifetime latin america lifetime announced the launch of a latin american version of the network which launched on july 1 2014 in south america caribbean and parts of central america in association with sony pictures television latin america . it supplanted the now defunct sony spin channel formerly known as locomotion from 1996 to 2005 and animax from 2007 to 2013 on the amazonas satellite serving south america . in mexico it was launched on october 1 2014 replacing the biography channel . in brazil the channel airs its programming fully dubbed in portuguese . 18 lifetime latin america is currently distributed by hbo latin america group under license from a e networks latin america and sony pictures television latin america . united kingdom & ireland edit main article lifetime uk and ireland a e networks