Bloomberg Businessweek digs into Oprah Winfrey’s difficulties with kick-starting her OWN cable network–a struggle she herself has described as “climbing Kilimanjaro.” OWN’s losses may be as much as $330 million, potentially forcing its parent company, Discovery, to take a write-off.
OWN has suffered what might be more significant than growing pains–its initial ratings were a paltry 308,000 daily viewers–though it’s lately seen a resurgence thanks to the interview program Oprah’s Next Chapter. After OWN’s cancellation of Rosie O’Donnell’s nightly talk show and its struggle connecting with non-Winfrey unscripted series, the prescription may be more Oprah.
