Prime Women Media, a female-led digital company, said it plans to launch a linear television network aimed at women age 50 and older.
Prime Women is aiming to launch the network in the second quarter of 2024 and is currently talking with cable and satellite providers.
Launching a traditional pay TV network is unusual at a time when viewers are shifting to streaming and media companies are focused on growing and launching their streaming channels and services.
The new network will be ad-supported. At this point, women 50 and older are regarded as important consumers, but until recently most of them were not included in the dominant demographics used to buy and sell television: women and adults aged 18-49 and 25-54.
More recently, some advertisers and media buyers have been using an older demographic for television advertising transactions.
The network is also looking to acquire and develop programming on topic impacting women in their prime (Don Lemon notwithstanding), including health, fitness and relationships.
“There are 63 million women over 50 in the U.S.,“ Dorthy Miller Shore, board chair and CEO of Prime Women Media, said. “These women, who live in cities, suburbs, and rural areas and have different ethnicities and political affiliations, all face the same issues after 50.”
Added Shore: “They all have been changed by menopause, which brings more than just the loss of childbearing. Many women over 50 face serious mental and physical changes, find their careers waning due to sexism and ageism and feel increasingly invisible in a youth-obsessed culture. Yet we are the most active, ambitious, and influential group of women in a generation.”
In addition to Shore, Prime Women Media is headed by a group of female executives, business leaders and entrepreneurs, including Kristine Davis, co-founder of Avatar Investments LP.
Shore founded Miller Ad Agency, which specialized in automotive and digital advertising.
Other investors in Prime Women Media include Valerie Freeman, CEO of BravoTech, Freeman+Leonard, and Anserteam; and Jan Fletcher, chair of INW Group and of Rougemont Estates.
