Lifetime Launches Re-Branded myLifetime.com

By far the most-viewed women's cable network, Lifetime faces competition online from the likes of NBC Universal's iVillage.

By Anne Becker -- Broadcasting & Cable, 11/12/2007 6:13:00 PM

Aiming to broaden its reach for advertisers and its content, Lifetime relaunched its Website, LifetimeTV.com, as myLifetime.com and made several new online partnerships and content deals. The network has partnered with Glam Media, the biggest aggregator of female-focused Websites, and others, to grow the base of consumers it can sell advertisers and has struck deals with content creators, like Daily Show co-founder Lizz Winstead, on original broadband content. 

Through Glam, Lifetime will provide video and gaming content to several other women-focused lifestyle sites in the company's network of about 24 million viewers. Separately, Lifetime will broaden its partnership with online game provider RealArcade through a "Lifetime Games Club" to launch during second quarter, 2008. And from RevolutionHealth.com, Lifetime will feature articles and online tools on its own site. 

The goal is for Lifetime to build its own site with some of the things it does best - video programming, like the new broadband series - and maintain the company's brand as a leading online destination for women by partnering with other female-focused companies who have other areas of expertise online, says Lifetime EVP, Digital Media and Business Development Dan Suratt. 

While Lifetime is by far the most-viewed women's cable network, it faces competition from the likes of NBC Universal's iVillage and others for the attention of its female audience online.  

"What we're really trying to do is reinforce the connection and the brand and what Lifetime means to women," says Suratt. "We're trying to use our brand in spaces where it’s out of our skill set somewhat by aligning with people who have expertise in those areas." 

On the video front, Lifetime plans to premiere upwards of 20 original Webisode series to the site in 2008. They include Gift Intervention, the Winstead show, which will feature recipients of bad gifts asking the gift-givers why they sent them. Other new online programs include short reality shows on crafts and style in partnership with Hearst Digital, as well as 20-Minute Workouts, a show with trainer Ellen Barret, and Healthy Shopping, one with dietitian Dawn Jackson Blatner. 

The "myLifetime" name change was made to reinforce the site's community aspects, Suratt says. To date, the site has more than 2.3 million registered users.