
DATE: Friday, June 13, 1997                 TAG: 9706130986

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   45 lines

IFE'S RISE TO POWER

1990: IFE pays CBN $250 million in convertible securities for The Family Channel. Part of the deal requires The Family Channel to continue to carry ``certain programming produced by CBN,'' namely Pat Robertson's ``The 700 Club.''

May 1992: IFE becomes a publicly traded company, offering 10 million shares at $15 each. At the same time, a subsidiary of Tele-Communications Inc. invests $68 million in IFE. Those investments were later transferred to Liberty IFE Inc., an affiliate of Liberty Media Corp.

Early 1993: IFE buys TVS, which owns MTM Entertainment. MTM owns ``The Mary Tyler Moore Show,'' ``WKRP in Cincinnati,'' ``Hill Street Blues,'' ``Lou Grant,'' and other shows.

October 1993: IFE launches FiT TV, offering fitness, aerobics, lifestyle and health programming.

April 1996: IFE joins with an affiliate of TCI and Liberty Media and an affiliate of Reebok International Ltd. to own and operate FiT TV.

1996: Rumors begin to swirl that media industry titans such as Time Warner, Disney and Viacom are courting IFE.

June 11, 1997: A subsidiary of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. pays $1.9 billion, including debt, for IFE. ILLUSTRATION: Graphic

FILE COLOR PHOTOS

The Family Channel grew on the popularity of its kid-friendly fare.

Pat Robertson

Pumping up on FiT TV

Rupert Murdoch

April 1977: The Family Channel is founded as a division of

Christian Broadcasting Network. The first satellite-delivered basic

cable TV network in the U.S., it begins with 20,000 subscribers and