Test Your Connection
Speed Now

Oprah Winfrey to Launch New Cable Network

January 21, 2008

Talk show queen Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications are teaming up to form OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network - a new cable network scheduled to launch in 2009.

Designed as a multi-platform media venture, OWN will debut in more than 70 million homes on what is currently the Discovery Health Channel and will include the Oprah.com website. The network will be simulcast in HD.

Ownership of the network will be split evenly between Discovery and Harpo Productions, Inc., Winfrey’s company which produces The Oprah Winfrey Show and operates Oprah.com. Winfrey will serve as chairman of the network and control the channel’s editorial and website content, branding, and creative vision. Discovery will handle distribution, origination, and other operational requirements for the venture, while both partners will contribute to advertising sales.

As part of a joint announcement, Winfrey and David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery Communications, said the network’s mission is to provide a platform which empowers viewers to “live their best lives.”

Winfrey and Zaslav said that this is a cashless deal, but did not disclose financial details.

According to Winfrey, she will continue “The Oprah Winfrey Show” per her exclusive distribution contract for the program which expires in May 2010. She expects the possibility of ending the show to be discussed as early as this fall.

With the addition of OWN, Winfrey significantly expands her media reach which presently includes “O, The Oprah Magazine,” the Oprah.com website, “Oprah and Friends” - a satellite radio program which airs on XM Satellite Radio, and feature films through Harpo Productions.


Discovery Communications, one of the world’s largest media companies, reaches 1.5 billion subscribers in more than 170 countries. Its networks include Discovery Channel, The Learning Channel, Animal Planet, The Science Channel, Discovery Health, and HD Theater, with additional digital properties such as HowStuffWorks.com.

The OWN deal represents Discovery’s latest effort to increase brand name recognition of its cable networks before implementing its plans to take the company public later this year.