After three years of planning, delays and management misfires, OWN: The
to see whether the celebrity who can unleash consumer trends can
leverage the success of her 25-year run in daytime television into a
24-hour cable channel. The new channel is a mix of programming that
encourages people to “live their best lives” with the empowerment
message that is the
If viewers can only find the message. Winfrey’s network will mostly reside on channels above 200, taking over the position of
Discovery Health Channel. Even in the digital age, that’s a handicap —
the higher the number, the less likely viewers will stumble across the
programming as they switch among the more heavily watched channels
lower on the lineup.
OWN will also be competing against several other
entrenched cable networks aimed at the same female audience. Still,
backers believe, Winfrey’s emphasis on positive and optimistic
programming is unique among cable networks that appeal to women.
Moreover, when it comes to brand awareness, it doesn’t get more
prominent than Winfrey, whose daily talk show is watched by 7 million
viewers.
“There is no network that has ever launched in 80
million homes and with the advantage of the best brand in media, which
is Oprah, and a website, which is the No. 2 or No. 3 website for
women,” said
“It will be a historic launch, in terms of the reach and power,” he said.
For now, however, and with only 11 days to go before launch, Winfrey is still immersed in her longtime
syndicated talk show. She will tape her last episode in May — five
months after OWN premieres — for episodes that will run through
Last week, instead of being holed up at OWN’s headquarters on the Miracle Mile stretch of
Indeed, Winfrey’s reluctance to loosen her grip on
her daytime show has been a source of frustration for Discovery, which
so far has spent
on start-up costs. Even as recently as 18 months ago — long after plans
for OWN had been announced — Winfrey was undecided about whether she
would end her daytime show to concentrate on the cable channel.
Her program, Winfrey said in a telephone interview, remains her “full-time job” while it is in production.
“I’ve built (OWN) with only 10 percent of my time,
but I have surrounded myself with good people,” Winfrey said. “And when
I am able to focus my full gaze on it, the network is only going to get
better.”
Winfrey and her partners recognize that, unlike a
new movie or TV show that must produce immediate results, it probably
will take several years for OWN to establish itself. They say they are
prepared to stick it out.
“A lot of the programming will resonate, some of it
won’t,” Zaslav said. “We recognize it’s going to take a while to find a
voice. But we have an advantage because we know what the voice is going
to be.”
For two and a half years, executives at OWN have
labored to line up programming that meets Winfrey’s notoriously
demanding standards.
The channel is already on its second management regime. The first team was shown the door within the first year. Former
Still, OWN’s program development lacked cohesion until a year ago, when Winfrey dispatched
“I wouldn’t say we were casting about, groping
around for programming, but we didn’t have Oprah’s DNA yet,” Norman
said. “I didn’t know her; most people here don’t know her.”
Erspamer arrived in January bearing the title chief
creative officer, and things kicked into gear. “We’ve just been on a
runaway whirlwind of making programming ever since,” Norman said.
For Discovery, forward motion couldn’t have come soon enough.
The channel, unveiled in
was scheduled to launch in the fall of 2009 but was postponed to 2010,
then 2011. Costs climbed. In August, the company increased its
financial commitment to
Discovery hoped Winfrey’s persona would be enough
reason to raise fees that it charges cable operators for programming.
So far, that hasn’t happened. Discovery receives about
But Discovery was forced to scale back its price to about
per subscriber, Joyce said, while most operators wait to see evidence
that the channel is winning over viewers before negotiating new rates.
And those hoping to see Winfrey reprise her signature daily show will be disappointed.
Although Winfrey will be part of the promotional
on-air blitz and host a few programs, the first month will rely heavily
on TV celebrities that her production company has groomed — including
relationship expert
OWN is also jumping on the country’s obsession with
talent shows: Ten people will compete for the chance to have their own
show on “Oprah’s Search for the Next TV Star: Your OWN Show.”
Other program highlights include multi-part specials
about women in prison, “Breaking Down the Bars,” a topic that has
always intrigued Winfrey; and documentaries on
Winfrey will appear in “Behind the Scenes: The Oprah
Show Final Season” and “Oprah Presents Master Class,” in which she
interviews such luminaries as
Winfrey agreed to increase her on-air presence last summer, at
Discovery’s request, when Discovery nearly doubled the size of its
funding commitment.
“We are getting a lot of Oprah’s energy and her creative vision, and that’s one of the best assets we could have,” Zaslav said.
OWN will be competing with at least a dozen channels
that target women, including Lifetime, Oxygen (a channel Winfrey helped
launch that later was sold to NBC Universal), ABC Family, WE, Bravo,
Food Network, Home & Garden TV and TLC, the last also owned by
Discovery.
“Who isn’t the competition?” Norman asked. “Everyone is fair game.”
The channel should generate
“I spent a lot of time trying to decide whether to
go forward with this, and once I made the decision, then I was in. I am
committed for the long haul,” Winfrey said. “This network is going to
work. I know what people want.”
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