Business

Fem-net exodus

Leading women-oriented cable channels are struggling to find the right mix of content to win back rapidly vanishing viewers. Oxygen's 'Bad Girls' hopes to do just that.

Leading women-oriented cable channels are struggling to find the right mix of content to win back rapidly vanishing viewers. Oxygen’s ‘Bad Girls’ hopes to do just that. (EJ Camp/Oxygen Media)

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American women are voting with their TV remotes and they are choosing MTV’s Snooki and Bravo’s Bethenny over the more traditional primetime programming on such female-focused cable networks as Lifetime, Hallmark and HGTV.

At A&E Television Network’s Lifetime, primetime ratings slipped 17 percent in the first quarter compared to last year among women ages 18-49, while nonfiction-rich sibling History Channel — thanks to top-rated reality show “Pawn Stars” — saw a 31 percent jump among the same demographic, according to Nielsen data.

Over at the Hallmark channel, which airs “The Martha Stewart Show” during daytime, programming in the first quarter drew 17 percent fewer women than a year ago, ratings data shows.

Robert Seidman, an analyst at the blog TVbytheNumbers, says, “Women viewers just aren’t tuning to the cable homes of daytime stars Oprah and Martha in nearly the numbers that they’re tuning into Snooki, Beth-enny, NeNe and the Pawn Stars.”

The battle for women viewers is more than just a commentary on programming genres — it will determine how Madison Avenue spends a big chunk of the $60 billion its spends annually on cable programming.

Hallmark’s ratings decline, which started in 2010, coincided with a 2 percent dropoff in ad revenue last year, to $260 million. At Lifetime, ad revenue last year totaled $564.8 million — less than the network took in five years earlier, according to SNL Kagan.

The changing viewing habit of women will be among the top talking points beginning this week at the annual upfronts, when advertisers begin making decisions on how to spend their ad budgets.

Discovery Communications is one such network that will bring its dog and pony show to Madison Avenue this week. It appears to be benefiting from the shift.

Its Investigation Discovery has seen a 47 percent increase in female viewing for its slate of crime-themed shows, including “Who the Bleep Did I Marry?”

The channel has seen ad revenue grow from $10 million to over $100 million in the past two and half years as it has honed its focus on female viewers.

“Advertisers are coming to us because we have incredible delivery of women,” said president Henry Schleiff.

Other big winners among women viewers are: MTV, up 67 percent in viewership for the quarter, thanks to “Jersey Shore”; Bravo, with its “Real Housewives” franchise, up 37 percent; and even ESPN, which rose 35 percent in female viewers in the key demo.

Brad Adgate, Horizon Media’s SVP research, told The Post, “Women just want to be entertained. They’re balancing careers and motherhood and sometimes don’t want to do a lot of thinking — this is just a moment to themselves.

“They’re the chief purchasing officers, so they’re a great target for advertisers, and that’s why so many networks are gunning for them.”

catkinson@nypost.com