ANALYST SAYS FAILURE OF OWN COULD COST DISCOVERY $143 MILLION

Unless it can engineer a massive turnaround of Oprah Winfrey’s OWN cable network, Discovery Communications could end the year reporting a $142.9-million loss, according to SNL Kagan analyst Derek Baine. Clearly Baine believes such a turnaround is unlikely and that Discovery will likely be forced to cut the license fee it charges cable operators to […]

OPRAH’S OWN NETWORK SETS RATINGS RECORD

Oprah Winfrey’s struggling OWN cable network got a huge boost Sunday from Winfrey herself when her recently launch Oprah’s Next Chapter attracted 3.5 million viewers, a record for the channel. The program featured an interview with Whitney Houston’s daughter, Bobbi Kristina and her family, brother Gary Houston and her sister-in-law Patricia Houston. . That audience […]

WINFREY APOLOGIZES FOR TRYING TO MANIPULATE RATINGS

Oprah Winfrey, whose OWN cable network remains ratings-challenged, apologized on Monday for posting a message on Twitter asking so-called Nielsen families — those sampled by the ratings service for its daily reports — to tune in to her channel. Sent out just minutes before her latest episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter went on the air, […]

OPRAH PROMISES TO OVERHAUL HER CABLE CHANNEL

Days before launching Oprah’s Next Chapter, her new Sunday-night series on her OWN cable channel, Oprah Winfrey has vowed to reinvigorate the channel, which has proved to be a disappointment to all concerned — Winfrey included — during its first year. In an interview with the Associated Press, Winfrey remarked, “I don’t worry about failure. […]

OPRAH MOVING TO PRIMETIME

Oprah Winfrey is expected to announce today (Thursday) that she is ready to compete in primetime and will host an hourlong show titled Oprah’s Next Chapter two or three times a week beginning late next year, the Wall Street Journal reported today. The show, which will air on Winfrey’s Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), will see […]