Cable nets making hay with viewers during daytime.(Salad Days)(Industry Overview)

Multichannel News, October, 2003 by Reynolds, Mike

LIKE SANDS THROUGH AN HOUR GLASS, SO GO THE DAYS OF OUR Lives." The introduction to the long-running NBC soap opera works as a metaphor, for much of daytime television these days. Shifting social and economic patterns over the past 10 to 15 years bare created a new television audience during the day.

"Sure, there we a still lot of housewives and the elderly at home during the day," said Tim Brooks, senior vice president of research at Lifetime Television and a TV historian. "But there are a lot of adults 18 to 34, college kids and young adults who have yet to settle into their careers. There are part-time workers and telecommuters. "Teachers are home during the summer, and mothers with young kids can catch an hour here or there, when they...