Oxygen Network

Oxygen (branded on air as Oxygen True Crime) is an American cable and digital multicast television network owned by the NBCUniversal Media Group unit of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast. The network primarily airs true crime television series and police procedural dramas.

The channel launched on February 1, 2000, under the ownership of Oxygen Media, a consortium including Geraldine Laybourne and Oprah Winfrey among other stakeholders. It originally carried a format of lifestyle and entertainment programming oriented towards women. Oxygen Media was acquired by NBC Universal in 2007 for nearly $1 billion, after which the channel began to place a stronger focus on targeting young adult women. After the network experienced ratings successes with a programming block dedicated to such programming, Oxygen was relaunched in mid-2017 to focus primarily on true crime programs and crime dramas.

The channel initially operated as a cable network; in 2022, Oxygen began to also operate as a digital multicast television network on subchannels of NBC Owned Television Stations. , Oxygen is available to approximately 59,000,000 pay television households in the United States, down from its 2012 peak of 80,000,000 households.

History

The privately held company Oxygen Media was founded in 1998 by former Nickelodeon executive Geraldine Laybourne, talk-show host Oprah Winfrey, media executive Lisa Gersh, and producers Marcy Carsey, Tom Werner and Caryn Mandabach (of Carsey-Werner fame). Laybourne was the service's founder, chairwoman, and CEO, staying with the channel until the NBCUniversal sale. The company's subscription network Oxygen launched on February 1, 2000.

Oxygen's first headquarters were at Battery Park City in New York City, near the World Trade Center. It was knocked off the air on September 11, 2001; a simulcast of Time Warner Cable-owned regional news channel NY1 was carried by Oxygen's channel space until the studio reopened within a week after the attack. Oxygen's operations were later consolidated at Chelsea Market, a former Nabisco factory at 15th Street and Ninth Avenue in New York City.

Prior to 2005, the channel carried a limited schedule of regular season WNBA games produced by NBA TV. The channel later began to focus chiefly on reality shows, reruns, and movies. For a time during the talk show's syndication run, Oxygen aired week-delayed repeats of ''The Tyra Banks Show''. The yoga/meditation/exercise program '' Inhale'' was the last inaugural Oxygen program on air into the channel's NBC Universal era, albeit in repeats; it was cancelled in 2010.

''Campus Ladies'', ''Bliss'', '' Oprah After the Show'', '' Talk Sex with Sue Johanson'', '' The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency'', '' Snapped'', '' Girls Behaving Badly'' and ''Bad Girls Club'', a reality series, were the highlight shows of the network at this time. Oxygen launched with immediate DirecTV carriage, and arrived on Dish Network in early 2006 during that provider's carriage conflict with Lifetime.

Acquisition by NBC Universal

In August 2007, rumors emerged that NBC Universal had made offers to acquire Oxygen, with the network reportedly recommending that Bravo Media head Lauren Zalaznick lead the network post-acquisition. It was reported that the network had been pursuing offers of at least $1 billion (referred to internally as "BET money", in reference to Viacom's earlier acquisition of the channel). On October 9, 2007, NBC Universal announced it would be acquiring Oxygen for $925 million.

The sale was completed on November 20, 2007, with Zalaznick appointed head of Oxygen. NBCU cable head Jeff Gaspin stated that Oxygen would be marketed to advertisers alongside sister properties targeting an "upscale" female audience, such as Bravo, iVillage, and ''Today''. Some of Oxygen's executives departed during the integration, with Laybourne and president of programming Debby Beece both stepping down, and Gersh transitioning to roles at other NBCU divisions (including The Weather Channel, and later NBC News).

In April 2008, during its first upfronts under NBCU ownership, Oxygen announced a planned rebranding to take effect that June. This would include a new logo and slogan ("Live Out Loud"), establishing women 18-49 (with a particular emphasis on a "young, trend-obsessed" women 18–34) as the network's target demographic, and relaunching its website with a larger focus on video content from its shows. It also announced upcoming series in development, such as '' Coolio's Rules'' and ''Dance Your Ass Off''. During the 2008 Summer Olympics, Oxygen aired a two-hour block of coverage on weekday evenings as part of NBC Sports' overall coverage. Oxygen focused primarily on coverage of the gymnastics competitions.

The June 29, 2009 premiere of ''Dance Your Ass Off'' was Oxygen's highest-rated series premiere to-date, with an average of 1.3 million viewers. A high definition simulcast feed launched in March 2011. On May 21, 2013, the premiere of the ''Bad Girls Club'' spin-off '' Bad Girls All-Star Battle'' became Oxygen's highest-rated series premiere to-date, with 1.73 million viewers. With a '' Bad Girls Club: Atlanta'' reunion special as a lead-in (which drew a series high of nearly 2 million viewers), Nielsen estimated that Oxygen had achieved its highest-rated night of key demographic viewership to-date, and the top two programs on cable that evening.

Following the acquisition of NBC Universal by Comcast and the last-minute replacement of its sister channel Style Network with Esquire Network (which was originally intended to replace G4) on September 23, 2013, some of its acquired programs were dispersed to Oxygen.
In April 2014, as part of a gradual re-focusing of NBCU's women's cable networks by new division head Bonnie Hammer, and the appointment of Frances Berwick as the head of Oxygen and Bravo, it was revealed that Oxygen would undergo a shift in its programming strategy to focus on a "modern", young female audience. Berwick explained that the new slate, which included upcoming series such as ''Fix My Choir'', ''Funny Girls'', ''Nail'd It'', '' Sisterhood of Hip Hop'', ''Street Art Throwdown'', and planned spin-offs of '' Preachers of L.A.'', would "deliver on the freshness, authenticity, high emotional stakes and optimism that this demographic is looking for", and that many of the new programs would "appeal to things that are important in the lives of young, millennial women" and be "authentic". As part of the re-focusing, the network also introduced a new slogan, "Very Real".

Refocus on true crime

In December 2016, it was reported that NBCUniversal was considering reformatting Oxygen as a true crime-oriented channel. Since 2015, the genre had seen growing interest, especially among young adult women. The network had introduced a primetime block known as ''Crime Time'' on Fridays through Mondays (anchored by series such as '' Snapped''), which had helped Oxygen see a 42% increase in total viewership, and a 22% increase among women 25–54. NBCUniversal had reportedly been in talks with Dick Wolf—producer of NBC's ''Law & Order'' and ''Chicago'' franchises—to take an equity stake in a re-branded channel that could be led by reruns of the programs. In January 2017, the network also began a related foray into podcasting, with the true crime series ''Martinis & Murder''.

In February 2017, NBCUniversal confirmed that it planned to re-format Oxygen with a focus on true crime programming aimed towards women. The change was accompanied by a larger re-branding later in the year, with new police tape-inspired logo. Oxygen's new lineup was built largely around its existing library of unscripted true-crime programming (such as ''Snapped''), and reruns of police procedurals such as the '' CSI'' and ''NCIS'' franchises. Berwick stated that the network had not determined the fate of the network's non-crime programming, such as ''Bad Girls Club'', after the full re-branding takes effect.

During its upfront presentations, Oxygen unveiled other new crime programs that were in development for the upcoming season, such the new Dick Wolf series '' Criminal Confessions,'' a docuseries on the murder of Jessica Chambers co-produced with NBCUniversal-funded BuzzFeed, and a new season of Wolf's '' Cold Justice'' (which had been originally cancelled by TNT). In September 2017, Oxygen and USA Network acquired off-network reruns of '' Chicago P.D.'', which were added to their schedules in October 2017.

International

On October 17, 2024, NBCUniversal announced an agreement with Bell Media to launch a Canadian version of Oxygen on January 1, 2025; the channel formerly operated as a Canadian version of Oxygen competitor Investigation Discovery before its loss of rights to Warner Bros. Discovery factual channel brands to Rogers Media.

Programming

Current

*''Kill or Be Killed''
*''Buried in the Backyard''
*''911 Crisis Center''
*'' Cold Justice''
*''Dateline: Secrets Uncovered''
*''Dateline: Unforgettable''
*'' Homicide for the Holidays''
*''Killer Siblings''
*'' Snapped''
*'' Mark of a Killer''
*''Final Moments''
*''Accident, Suicide or Murder''
*''The Real Murders of Orange County''
*''The Real Murders of Atlanta''
*''The Real Murders of Los Angeles''
*''Blood & Money''
*''Living with a Serial Killer''
*'' Snapped: Killer Couples''
*''Twisted Killers''
*''Floribama Murders''
*''Fatal Family Feuds''
*''Prosecuting Evil with Kelly Siegler''
*''Sin City Murders''
*''Sins of the South''
*''Deadly Waters With Captain Lee''
*''A Plan To Kill''
*''Philly Homicide''
*''Unknown Serial Killers of America''

Past

*''50 Funniest Women Alive''
*'' Addicted to Beauty''
*'' All About Aubrey''
*'' All My Babies' Mamas''
*''All the Right Moves''
*''As She Sees It''
*''Bachelorette Party: Las Vegas''
*'' Bad Girls All-Star Battle''
*''Bad Girls Club''
*''Bad Girls Club: Afterparty''
*''Bad Girls Club: Flo Gets Married''
*'' Bad Girls Road Trip''
*'' Battle of the Ex Besties''
*''Behind the Shield''
*'' Best Ink''
*''Birth Stories''
*''Bliss''
*''Breaking Up with Shannen Doherty''
*''Breakup Girl''
*''Bring Home the Exotic''
*'' Brooklyn 11223''
*''Campus Ladies''
*''Can You Tell?''
*''Candice Checks It Out''
*''Captured''
* '' Celebrities Undercover''
* '' Chasing Maria Menounos''
*''Cheryl Richardson's Lifestyle Makeovers''
*''Choose to Lead''
*'' Coolio's Rules''
*''Conversations from the Edge with Carrie Fisher''
*'' Criminal Confessions''
*''The DNA of Murder with Paul Holes''
*''Daily Remix''
*''Dance Your Ass Off''
*''Deadly Cults''
*'' Death at the Mansion: Rebecca Zahau''
*''Debbie Travis' Painted House''
*'' Deion & Pilar: Prime Time Love''
*''The Disappearance of Crystal Rogers''
*''The Disappearance of Maura Murray''
*''The Disappearance of Natalee Holloway''
*''The Disappearance of Phoenix Coldon''
*''The Disappearance of Susan Cox Powell''
*''Dogs with Jobs''
*'' Douglas Family Gold''
*''Drastic Plastic Surgery''
*''Dying to Belong''
*''Eavesdropping with Alan Cummings''
*''eLove''
*''Exhale with Candice Bergen''
*'' The Face''
*''Facelift''
*''Fight Girls''
*''Find Me My Man''
*''Fix My Choir''
*''Fix My Mom''
*''Florida Man Murders''
*''The Forgotten West Memphis Three''
*''Framed By The Killer''
*''Freeride with Greta Gaines''
*''Funny Girls''
*''The Girl In the Picture''
*''Girlfriend Confidential: LA''
*'' Girls Behaving Badly''
*'' The Glee Project''
*'' Good Girls Don't''
*''Hair Battle Spectacular''
*''Hey Monie!''
*''Hollywood Unzipped: Stylist Wars''
*''House of Glam''
*''In Ice Cold Blood''
*''Injustice with Nancy Grace''
*''It Takes a Killer''
*''I'm Having Their Baby''
*'' Inhale Yoga with Steve Ross''
*''The Isaac Mizrahi Show''
*''Inshallah: Diary of an Afghan Woman''
*'' Ivana Young Man''
*'' I've Got a Secret''
*''Jane By Design''
*'' Janice & Abbey''
*'' The Janice Dickinson Modeling Agency''
*'' Jersey Couture''
*''The Jury Speaks''
*''Just Cause''
*''ka-Ching''
*''Keisha and Kaseem''
*''Kids Behaving Badly''
*''Killer Affair''
*''Killer Motive''
*''Killerpost''
*''Killision Course''
*''Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project''
*'' Last Squad Standing''
*''Laura Pedersen's Your Money and Your Life''
*''License to Kill''
*''A Lie to Die For''
*''Life & Style''
*''Life's a Bitch''
*'' Like A Boss''
*''Living Different''
*''Living With Funny''
*'' Love Games: Bad Girls Need Love Too''
*''Making It Big''
*''Man Talk with Carrie Fisher''
*''Me Time''
*'' Mo'Nique's Fat Chance''
*''Movies@Oxygen''
*'' Mr. Romance''
*'' Murdered by Morning''
*''My Big Fat Revenge''
*''My Crazy Love''
*''My Shopping Addiction''
*'' Murder and Justice: The Case of Martha Moxley''
*''Nail'd It!''
*'' Naked Josh''
*'' The Naughty Kitchen with Chef Blythe Beck''
*'' The Next Big Thing: NY''
*''Nice Package''
*''O2Be''
*'' Oprah After the Show''
*''Oprah Goes Online''
*''Our Bodies, Myself'' (web series only)
*''Oxygen Movies''
*''Oxygen Sports''
*''Oxygen's 25iest''
*''Pajama Party''
*''Peep Show'' (as the first US telecaster; the UK sitcom was initially paired with the Canadian '' Show Me Yours'' as a Saturday-night provocative comedy bloc.)
*''Player Gets Played''
*''Policewomen Files''
*''Pond Life''
*'' The Prancing Elites Project''
*''Preachers of Atlanta''
*''Preachers of Detroit''
*'' Preachers of L.A.''
*'' Pretty Wicked''
*''Pure Oxygen''
*''Quigley's Village''
*''Real Families''
*''Relentless''
*''Real Weddings From the Knot''
*''Repo Girls''
*''Ripe Tomatoes''
*'' Running Russell Simmons''
*''SheCommerce''
*'' Show Me Yours''
*'' Sisterhood of Hip Hop''
*''Skin Deep''
*'' Snapped: She Made Me Do It''
*''Sports Aside''
*'' Show Me Yours''
*''Street Art Throwdown ''
*''Strut''
*'' Sunday Night Sex Show''
*''Talk Sex with Sue Johanson''
*'' Tanisha Gets Married''
*''Tattoos After Dark''
*'' Tease''
*''Three Days to Live''
*''Too Young to Marry?''
*''Top Model Obsessed''
*''Tracey Ullman's Visible Panty Lines''
*''Trackers''
*'' Tori & Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood''
*'' Tori & Dean: Inn Love''
*'' Tori & Dean: sTORIbook Weddings''
*''Trippin' with May Lee''
*''An Unexpected Killer''
*''Unprotected''
*''Unspeakable Crime: The Killing of Jessica Chambers''
*'' Up and Vanished''
*''Use Your Life''
*''Violent Minds: Killers on Tape''
*''A Wedding and a Murder''
*''We Sweat''
*''Who Cares About Girls?''
*''Who Does She Think She Is?''
*''Who Needs Hollywood?''
*''Women and the Badge''
*''The World According to Paris''
*''Worst.Post.Ever, with Frankie Grande''
*''Worth the Risk''
*''X-Chromosome''
*''You're on TV''

Syndicated

*''Absolutely Fabulous''
*''America's Got Talent''
*''America's Next Top Model''
*''Buffy the Vampire Slayer''
*''Burn Notice''
*'' Chicago P.D.''
*'' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation''
*''Cybill''
*''A Different World''
*''Ellen''
*''The Ellen DeGeneres Show''
*''The Gospel Bill Show''
*''Glee''
*''Grace Under Fire''
*''House''
*''Kate & Allie''
*'' La Femme Nikita''
*'' Law & Order: Criminal Intent''
*''Living Single''
*''Mad About You''
*'' Minute to Win It''
*'' My Wife and Kids''
*''NCIS''
*''Ned and Stacey''
*''Nighty Night''
*''Roseanne''
*'' Suburban Shootout''
*'' Xena: Warrior Princess''

Over-the-air affiliates

On May 2, 2022, NBC Owned Television Stations began to carry Oxygen as a subchannel on digital terrestrial television, primarily on NBC and Telemundo owned and operated stations.

References

External links

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{{Authority control

Television networks in the United States
NBCUniversal networks
Oxygen (TV channel)
Television channels and stations established in 2000
English-language television stations in the United States
Women's interest channels
True crime