Recent from talks
Oprah Winfrey Network
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Oprah Winfrey Network
The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN, also known as the OWN Network) is an American multinational basic cable television network which launched on January 1, 2011, effectively replacing the Discovery Health Channel, which one month later merged with FitTV to become Discovery Fit & Health (now known as Discovery Life). OWN is operated as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery's networks division and Harpo Productions.
Founded by television personality Oprah Winfrey, the channel primarily focuses on lifestyle programming targeting a female audience, with an initial focus on programming with themes related to life improvement, relationships, and spirituality, and a particular focus on targeting African Americans.
Initially a 50/50 joint venture, Discovery acquired a larger stake in the network in 2017 and again in December 2020, when Discovery increased its ownership in OWN from 73% to 95%. Harpo remains a "significant" minority stakeholder, and Winfrey is contracted with the channel through (at least) 2025. OWN competes with other networks aimed at African Americans such as the BET Media Group's namesake channel and the E. W. Scripps Company's Bounce TV. As of February 2015, OWN is available to approximately 81.9 million pay television households (70.3% of households with television) in the United States.
After becoming Discovery Communications' new CEO in 2007, David Zaslav found Discovery Health to be underperforming along with its other digital cable networks launched in the last decade, and taking in significantly lower carriage fees in comparison to the company's namesake, Discovery Channel. As a result, he began to explore the possibility of re-launching the channel as a joint venture with another partner. Zaslav's wife was an avid reader of Oprah Winfrey's O magazine (a joint venture with Hearst Corporation); believing that her values could serve as the basis for a cable network, he contacted Winfrey's agents to hold a meeting in April 2007. On January 15, 2008, Discovery Communications officially announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Winfrey's studio Harpo Productions, under which it would re-launch Discovery Health as "OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network", in the second half of 2009.
Winfrey would serve as the chairwoman of the channel, which was expected to deal in factual programming oriented towards her personal philosophy of "living your best life"; this would include topics such as health, love, parenting, and spirituality. Discovery provided $100 million in funding, and Harpo provided access to its library and Winfrey's website, Oprah.com. As it was still under contract with CBS Television Distribution through May 2011, her existing syndicated talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show was not expected to air on OWN, but there was a possibility that a spiritual continuation or successor to the program could air on OWN in the future.
Winfrey and her long-time partner Stedman Graham had discussed the idea of forming her own channel as early as 1992. After Winfrey demonstrated discontent over "confrontational" talk shows on television, Graham suggested that she should form an "Oprah Winfrey Network" if she were dissatisfied with the current state of television. OWN was not Winfrey's first cable television venture, having been co-founder of the women's cable network Oxygen. However, her involvement was limited to being an investor and eventually offering it an after-show component, Oprah After the Show, after deciding not to offer her reruns to the network; Winfrey distanced herself from Oxygen when discussing OWN, stressing the importance of actually having influence over programming when participating in such ventures.
In November 2008, Zaslav stated that Winfrey had planned to not renew her contract with CBS for The Oprah Winfrey Show beyond the 2010–11 season, and that the show could move to OWN in some form following the end of the syndicated run. Harpo Productions denied the report, stating that Winfrey "has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond [2011]". The development of OWN was affected by internal conflicts, as well as Winfrey's continued commitment to her talk show. Its launch was pushed back from its originally-announced target of 2009 to an unspecified date. Zaslav pressured Oprah into moving her talk show to the channel, believing that it could boost its business.
In November 2009, Lisa Erspamer—a Harpo executive who had been a co-executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show since 2006—was named chief creative officer of OWN. Due to her history of working with Winfrey, the appointment of Erspamer was seen as having stabilized OWN's development; network CEO Christina Norman described Erspamer's arrival as being an "injection of Oprah's DNA" into the upcoming channel. Later on November 20, Winfrey officially announced that The Oprah Winfrey Show would conclude in 2011, after its 25th and final season. With the end of her talk show, Winfrey's commitments with Discovery were revised; a commitment for Winfrey to host a talk show on OWN and appear in at least 35 hours of programming per year, was replaced with a commitment to appear in at least 70 hours of programming per year, including Oprah's Next Chapter—a primetime interview series hosted by Winfrey.
Hub AI
Oprah Winfrey Network AI simulator
(@Oprah Winfrey Network_simulator)
Oprah Winfrey Network
The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN, also known as the OWN Network) is an American multinational basic cable television network which launched on January 1, 2011, effectively replacing the Discovery Health Channel, which one month later merged with FitTV to become Discovery Fit & Health (now known as Discovery Life). OWN is operated as a joint venture between Warner Bros. Discovery's networks division and Harpo Productions.
Founded by television personality Oprah Winfrey, the channel primarily focuses on lifestyle programming targeting a female audience, with an initial focus on programming with themes related to life improvement, relationships, and spirituality, and a particular focus on targeting African Americans.
Initially a 50/50 joint venture, Discovery acquired a larger stake in the network in 2017 and again in December 2020, when Discovery increased its ownership in OWN from 73% to 95%. Harpo remains a "significant" minority stakeholder, and Winfrey is contracted with the channel through (at least) 2025. OWN competes with other networks aimed at African Americans such as the BET Media Group's namesake channel and the E. W. Scripps Company's Bounce TV. As of February 2015, OWN is available to approximately 81.9 million pay television households (70.3% of households with television) in the United States.
After becoming Discovery Communications' new CEO in 2007, David Zaslav found Discovery Health to be underperforming along with its other digital cable networks launched in the last decade, and taking in significantly lower carriage fees in comparison to the company's namesake, Discovery Channel. As a result, he began to explore the possibility of re-launching the channel as a joint venture with another partner. Zaslav's wife was an avid reader of Oprah Winfrey's O magazine (a joint venture with Hearst Corporation); believing that her values could serve as the basis for a cable network, he contacted Winfrey's agents to hold a meeting in April 2007. On January 15, 2008, Discovery Communications officially announced that it had entered into a joint venture with Winfrey's studio Harpo Productions, under which it would re-launch Discovery Health as "OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network", in the second half of 2009.
Winfrey would serve as the chairwoman of the channel, which was expected to deal in factual programming oriented towards her personal philosophy of "living your best life"; this would include topics such as health, love, parenting, and spirituality. Discovery provided $100 million in funding, and Harpo provided access to its library and Winfrey's website, Oprah.com. As it was still under contract with CBS Television Distribution through May 2011, her existing syndicated talk show The Oprah Winfrey Show was not expected to air on OWN, but there was a possibility that a spiritual continuation or successor to the program could air on OWN in the future.
Winfrey and her long-time partner Stedman Graham had discussed the idea of forming her own channel as early as 1992. After Winfrey demonstrated discontent over "confrontational" talk shows on television, Graham suggested that she should form an "Oprah Winfrey Network" if she were dissatisfied with the current state of television. OWN was not Winfrey's first cable television venture, having been co-founder of the women's cable network Oxygen. However, her involvement was limited to being an investor and eventually offering it an after-show component, Oprah After the Show, after deciding not to offer her reruns to the network; Winfrey distanced herself from Oxygen when discussing OWN, stressing the importance of actually having influence over programming when participating in such ventures.
In November 2008, Zaslav stated that Winfrey had planned to not renew her contract with CBS for The Oprah Winfrey Show beyond the 2010–11 season, and that the show could move to OWN in some form following the end of the syndicated run. Harpo Productions denied the report, stating that Winfrey "has not made a final decision as to whether she will continue her show in syndication beyond [2011]". The development of OWN was affected by internal conflicts, as well as Winfrey's continued commitment to her talk show. Its launch was pushed back from its originally-announced target of 2009 to an unspecified date. Zaslav pressured Oprah into moving her talk show to the channel, believing that it could boost its business.
In November 2009, Lisa Erspamer—a Harpo executive who had been a co-executive producer of The Oprah Winfrey Show since 2006—was named chief creative officer of OWN. Due to her history of working with Winfrey, the appointment of Erspamer was seen as having stabilized OWN's development; network CEO Christina Norman described Erspamer's arrival as being an "injection of Oprah's DNA" into the upcoming channel. Later on November 20, Winfrey officially announced that The Oprah Winfrey Show would conclude in 2011, after its 25th and final season. With the end of her talk show, Winfrey's commitments with Discovery were revised; a commitment for Winfrey to host a talk show on OWN and appear in at least 35 hours of programming per year, was replaced with a commitment to appear in at least 70 hours of programming per year, including Oprah's Next Chapter—a primetime interview series hosted by Winfrey.
Recent media