You are viewing the archive: “Oprah Winfrey Cable TV”

UPDATE: Discovery Chief Says 3D TV Growing “Slower Than Expected” As 2Q Company Results Beat Estimates

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday August 4, 2011 @ 4:12am PDTTags: 3net, David Zaslav, Discovery, Discovery Channel, Discovery Communications, Investigation Discovery, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Cable TV, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network, TLC

UPDATE, 6:50 AM: Not much from the conference call with analysts about the most interesting story at Discovery: the recent changes at its struggling joint venture with Oprah Winfrey, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Oprah recently named herself CEO and Chief Creative Officer. Zaslav says that “she is in place as CEO already,” and “we now have her creative team in place.” That means Discovery COO Peter Ligouri — named OWN’s interim CEO in May when the partners dumped Christina Norman — can “spend more time with us.” READ MORE »

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Cable Show: Oprah Says Of OWN Launch ‘I’d Probably Do It Differently’

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday June 16, 2011 @ 7:54am PDTTags: Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Cable TV, OWN

Oprah Winfrey told the cable industry this morning that the launch of her OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network was filled with “bumps” in part because “I was all in with one foot out the door” as she finished the final season … Read More »

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Oprah Admits Her OWN Is Underachiever

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Friday April 15, 2011 @ 1:14pm PDTTags: Discovery Communications, Discovery Health, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Cable TV, OWN

If you listened carefully, it sure sounded like Oprah Winfrey is starting to acknowledge what everybody else seems to know: that OWN — her cable channel joint venture with Discovery Communications — has been a disappointment since it was launched … Read More »

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OWN Pumps Up The Volume Of Original Programming In Pursuit Of Ratings Growth

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday January 31, 2011 @ 12:07am PSTTags: Christina Norman, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Cable TV, Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN, OWN Original Programming, OWN Ratings, OWN Ratings Decline
Nellie Andreeva

On Tuesday, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network will mark one month on the air. The network, which on Jan.1 replaced Discovery Health amidst a wave of publicity, is still work in progress,  OWN CEO Christina Norman admits, but says it is … Read More »

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OK Start For Oprah’s OWN Cable Network

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Monday January 3, 2011 @ 2:42pm PSTTags: Cable TV, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Cable TV, Oprah Winfrey Network, OWN Network, Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, TV, TV Ratings
Nellie Andreeva

In its first night of primetime on Jan.1, OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network averaged 1 million viewers, a respectable number, especially on a holiday Saturday night. On Day 2, the co-venture between Oprah’s Harpo and Discovery Communications, drew a primetime average … Read More »

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Oprah’s OWN Picks Up Rosie Daytime Talk

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Thursday August 5, 2010 @ 3:29pm PDTTags: Cable TV, Daytime Talk Shows, Discovery Communications, Oprah Winfrey, Oprah Winfrey Cable TV, OWN, Rosie O'Donnell, Rosie O'Donnell Talk Show
Nellie Andreeva

Four months ago, Rosie O’Donnell, who hosted the syndicated The Rosie O’Donnell Show and did a stint on ABC’s The View, teamed with syndication veterans Dick Robertson and Scott Carlin for a new syndicated daytime talk show. Now they have found a buyer, Oprah Winfrey’s upstart cable network OWN, a co-venture with Discovery Communications. Interesting move by Winfrey, who once competed with O’Donnell for the title of daytime talk show queen at the height of The Rosie O’Donnell Show in the late 1990s.

O’Donnell is a polarizing figure with strong political views and aggressive style who had previously indicated that she planned to stay true to herself on her new show. So giving her a daily talker on OWN, a network built on the premise of inspiring women and helping them better their lives, is somewhat surprising. But the description of the new show supplied by OWN seems to indicate that there will be more of the 1990s “queen of nice” bubbly persona than the darker, more controversial O’Donnell we’ve seen in the final stage of her daytime talk show, on The View as well as on her radio show on Sirius XM. Read More »

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TV Broadcast vs Cable: Enough Ad Dollars?

By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Wednesday June 23, 2010 @ 7:27pm PDTTags: Conan O'Brien TBS, Fox, Hollywood Radio and Television Society, HRTS, HRTS Newsmaker Luncheon, Late Night TV, NBC, Networks, Oprah Winfrey Cable TV, TV, TV Broadcast vs Cable

For Deadline today, freelance journalist Diane Haithman covered the Hollywood Radio and Television Society’s Newsmaker luncheon at the Beverly Hilton:

brokenTV18What will the TV industry have left to buzz about after fallen NBC talk show host Conan O’Brien’s new 11 PM show launches in November on TBS? And the world finally finds out whether his young, hip, Twitter-happy fans will follow him from NBC to cable? Once again, NBC and Conan launched the discussion at yet another industry gathering. O’Brien’s choice to sign with TBS instead of Fox after the “fairly catastrophic” NBC debacle (as FBC’s Kevin Reilly called it) was used as a starting point for a discussion about whether cable TV represents the television industry’s sweet spot in 2010. Oprah Winfrey’s move from syndication to starting her own cable network got a mention, too, but that was announced way back in 2009 — and she’s just not as much fun to talk about as Conan.

On the panel billed as “a post-upfronts look at the business of the business”: O’Brien’s attorney Leigh Brecheen, partner and head of television at the law firm Bloom Hergott; Paul Lee, president of ABC Family; Steve Mosko, president of Sony Pictures Television; Kevin Reilly, president of Fox Broadcasting Company; Chris Silbermann, president of ICM; and Tim Spengler, president of Initiative USA.

Well, time will tell whether cable is good to Conan – but what about everybody else? The rest of the discussion revolved around whether 2010’s promising upfronts mean that traditional, scripted broadcast TV series are back on top – and whether the networks can exist in happy harmony with cable channels, online TV options and VOD. Read More »

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