SOAPnet Acquires GILMORE GIRLS, Developing Shows

SOAPnet has acquired all seven seasons of off-net series GILMORE GIRLS and movie packages from Disney ABC Domestic Television and 20th Television that include How Stella Got Her Groove Back and While You Were Sleeping.

The channel is counting on GILMORE GIRLS to help attract younger women to the channel, much as THE OC and BEVERLY HILLS, 90210 did before.

Those shows have been appearing on weekends as part of a “Breakfast in Bed” block, which has increased ratings by 57% on Saturdays and 97% on Sundays. The shows replaced marathons of the previous week’s daytime dramas.

“Those marathons, which used to be the bread-and-butter of SOAPnet’s weekend, just don’t have as much value,” Mr. Frons said. “By the weekend, people have had three or four chances to see their favorite soaps, so we’re trying to create weekends that have their own viability.”

Some of those young women who tune in for the off-net shows also discover the soaps, creating a new generation of viewers. “It’s the circle of life,” Mr. Frons said, repeating a well-known Disney refrain.

SOAPnet will begin airing GILMORE GIRLS starting Saturday, April 4th.

In addition the channel is starting production later this month on HOLIDATE, a reality special in which a woman from New York trades places with a woman from Los Angeles and they date the men in each other’s lives. HOLIDATE is schedule to premiere in the fall.

The network also is working on an unscripted show in which celebrity mothers and daughters with relationship issues work out their problems with a therapist.

“We want to keep growing, and ultimately there’s a point where just growing your distribution—we’re up to 71 million homes now—is not going to be enough jet fuel,” Mr. Frons said. Maintaining the momentum requires new investments in programming to complement the daytime soap operas that are the core of the cable network’s primetime schedule, he said.

Programming spending is “increasing nicely,” despite tough economic times in the TV business. “We’ve actually been able to show that additional investment will bring additional profits.”

Last year, SOAPnet ranked 40th among advertising-supported cable networks in total viewers in prime time. Its viewership rose 1% from 2007.