 | |
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| Broadcast area | Nationwide |
| Headquarters | New York, New York |
| Programming | |
| Language | English |
| Picture format | 1080iHDTV (downscaled toletterboxed480i for theSDTV feed) |
| Ownership | |
| Owner | A+E Global Media |
| Parent | Lifetime Entertainment Services |
| Sister channels |
|
| History | |
| Launched | June 29, 1998; 27 years ago (1998-06-29) |
| Former names | Lifetime Movie Network (1998–2006, 2008–2011) Lifetime Movies (2017–2019) |
| Links | |
| Website | www |
| Availability | |
| Streaming media | |
| Service(s) | Frndly TV,Hulu + Live TV,Philo,Sling TV |
LMN, an initialism for theLifetime Movie Network, also known asLifetime Movies,[1] is an Americanpay televisionnetwork launched on June 29, 1998 and owned by theLifetime Entertainment Services subsidiary ofA+E Global Media, ajoint venture between theDisney Entertainment division ofThe Walt Disney Company and theHearst Communications.[2] LMN is one of the three flagship networks of LES, alongside namesakeLifetime and Lifetime Real Women.
LMN carries movies and exclusive shows aimed at women, especiallymade for television movies. Many, though not all, of the movies that air on the network are Lifetime originals that were first shown on the flagship Lifetime channel; in turn, the network also premieres original films that are later broadcast on Lifetime. Until they ended their involvement in television films in the early 2000s, the network's earliest programming consisted of movies originally meant for broadcast networks.
As of November 2023[update], LMN is available to approximately 47,000,000 pay television households in the United States-down from its 2013 peak of 85,000,000 households.[3] An Australian version of the channel launched on September 1, 2020 throughFoxtel, a subsidiary ofNews Corp.[4]
The network launched on June 29, 1998, as Lifetime Movie Network, adigital cable anddirect broadcast satellite extension of its main network.[5]Variety praised the move as "capitalizing on the expected channel boom from TV's conversion to digital distribution over the next few years."[6] However, it only reached 3 million of the 70 million pay-television subscribers in the U.S. at the time.[7]
The original format of the network consisted of longer blocks ofmade-for-television movies with limited commercial interruptions, airing twice a day. As the network grew and broadcast networks ceased producing made-for-TV movies, more commercial breaks were added during its film content. The network also added theatrical film releases to its schedule. The network airs different movies each day, although the movies aired at 8:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. ET each day are re-aired at 12:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. (9:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. PT).
On April 19, 2009, the broadcast ofNatalee Holloway attracted 3.2 million viewers for the network, more than 1 million of which were among the demographic of women aged 18–49, garnering the highestratings in the network's history at that time.[8] On August 27, 2009,A+E Networks acquiredLifetime Entertainment Services, which was jointly owned by the former's corporate parents The Walt Disney Company and the Hearst Corporation in conjunction withNBCUniversal (which sold its interest to the two other companies in 2011).[9][10]
On October 13, 2013, the network debuted its first original series, the reality-based murder mystery programKiller Profile.[11] In addition, three series that had previously aired on sister networkThe Biography Channel –The Haunting Of,I Survived... andCelebrity Ghost Stories – also moved to LMN that year. In March 2014, A+E Networks moved the drama seriesThose Who Kill to LMN, becoming the first scripted series to air on the network, although it solely moved to LMN toburn off the remaining episodes of the low-ratedA&E program.[12]
Over its27-year history, the network has vacillated its main branding several times, usually alternating between its full name of Lifetime Movie Network and their initials of LMN depending on the network's marketing plan at the time of the name change. The network's branding history is as follows: