NEW YORK --- Lifetime has set up a new sports division to take charge of a number of projects in the network's hopper.
At a press luncheon here, Doug McCormick, president and CEO of Lifetime, announced that there'd be two new entrants in the "Breaking Through" lineup of quarterly hourlong specials, which will fall under the banner of Lifetime Sports.
The first (scheduled for June 21) will focus on gender equality in sports 25 years after the passage of the groundbreaking federal law known as Title IX, and the second will deal with women athletes chosen for the February 1998 Winter Olympics. These two join the previously announced "Women Behind the Wheel," about female stock-car racers. Geena Davis will host all three, which will be produced by The Marquee Group, the New York-based TV production company.
Also under Lifetime Sports will be the weekly cablecasts, Friday at 9 p.m., of the inaugural season of the Women's National Basketball Assn., to kick off June 27 and run through the end of August.
And to existing sponsorships like the America 3 sailing team, the Colorado Silver Bullets all-female minor-league baseball team, and the pre-Olympics USA Basketball Women's National Team, Lifetime Sports will add what it calls a team-challenge triathlon.
This triathlon will "allow both professional and amateur female athletes to compete as a team in biking, swimming and running," according to Brian Donlon, VP of sports, new media and public affairs for Lifetime, which will tape the highlights for a one-hour special in 1988.
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