Oprah Winfrey
is expanding her media empire and launching her own television network.
Discovery Communications, which is partnering with Winfrey in the OWN (Oprah Winfrey Network) cable channel starting next year with distribution in 70 million U.S. homes, announced yesterday "The Oprah Winfrey Show" will cease to air via syndication on ABC by September 2011.
"The expectation is that after that, her show will go off of ABC in syndication and she will come to OWN," Discovery CEO David Zaslav said on the company's first earnings call as a public company. "We're talking now about what the presence will be and what kind of programming she would be involved in directly. But this is her Chapter 2, and building the OWN brand online and on-air is . . . a core mission for her."
Zaslav said Winfrey now is "very involved with us and focusing on what the channel is going to be, as well as developing Oprah.com."
The move is a blow both to CBS-TV Distribution, which syndicates the show, as well as to ABC, which airs it, reports the NY Post.
But Oprah's company, Harpo, said in a statement that although her production contract is up in 2011, "she has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond that."
The deal between Winfrey and Discovery was originally described as a "cashless transaction" for a 50-50 joint venture that will be independent of other Discovery channel holdings. Winfrey will have full editorial control of OWN and oversee its programming - a sticking point when she was involved with Oxygen. Winfrey sold her Oxygen stake to NBC because its programming didn't reflect her creative vision, according to the Post.
Oprah favorites like decorator Nate Berkus and Dr. Mehmet Oz are expected to have shows on the new network, as is her best friend, Gayle King.
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