Laybourne, Investors Get Last Laugh

Back in the day, the day being 2000, I was writing stories about the coming launch of Oxgyen. Naysayers abounded, with skeptics – including male programming chiefs at cable companies — questioning whether there was a need for another female-targeted network. After all, there was Lifetime, wasn’t there?

Gerry Laybourne and her early crew were pretty gutsy to try to create a cable network from scratch, building an infrastructure and trying to get carriage and create programming without the support of a media conglomerate.

Oxygen had high hopes for the Internet as well as a linear channel, and the venture was under intense media scrutiny, in part because Oprah Winfrey was involved as a financial backer.

The online Oxygen component didn’t fare so well, and the 24-hour network and Laybourne took some lumps from the press. Oxygen had its ups and downs, to say the least.

Now I guess Laybourne and her investors are having the last laugh, as they are about to get their payday, $925 million to be exact, from NBC Universal. Oxygen, with its 74 million subscribers, will now fall into Jeff Gaspin’s very capable hands at NBCU’s cable unit

During a press call Tuesday, Laybourne claimed that Oxygen’s status as an independent network helped it get carriage and financing, in effect that distributors were rooting for it. I’ve heard her argue otherwise, when lobbying against retransmission-consent, but I’ll allow Laybourne some inconsistencies – and offer her some congrats.