With traditional entertainment avenues struggling for viewers and revenue, more and more are turning to the Internet as an alternative source of income. At the same time the gaming industry has so far managed to stay clear of the ill effects of the current economic conditions. So bringing those two together makes sense and this is what women's TV network Lifetime is doing, by announcing a new partnership with UK casual game developer King.com to bring co-branded skill-based games to the network's site myLifetime.com.

"Partnering with King.com allows us to engage and entertain Lifetime Digital's audience in even more compelling ways, and will ensure we continue providing our consumers with the very best game experiences online," said Clayton Rose, senior vice president, Digital Properties at Lifetime Networks.

The two companies do have a lot in common, at least when it comes to the target audience, as many of the visitors to King.com are women – as much as 65 percent of the site's 17.5 million unique visitors. Lifetime is, of course, a company catering specifically to women and gets about 3.6 million unique visitors to its online properties, which include myLifetime.com, DressUpChallenge.com, LMN.tv, LifetimeMoms.com and MothersClick.com.

The Disney (ABC) and Hearst Corp-owned Lifetime Networks already has a sizable collection of casual online games and is one of the top 25 sites for this type of games but King.com operates at another level, serving 400 million games every month. The company already has some major deals with big names like Yahoo!, MSN and AOL and a number of European TV networks. Specific financial details about the deal weren't disclosed.

"We are delighted to be working with Lifetime Digital, as there are unparalleled synergies between both of our audiences, which will provide many opportunities," said Robert Norton, managing director, King.com, North America. "With the leading women's entertainment brand and the leading provider of online skill games for women joining forces, there are now even more ways for the Lifetime audience to connect, play and share."