Oprah Winfrey Network Losses Approach $330 Million

[onehandle]

Source: Huffington Post

Oprah is reportedly facing some steep financial headwinds as she tries to turn her struggling cable network around.

The woes that have befallen the Oprah Winfrey Network are by now the stuff of legend: the low ratings. The staff losses. The high-profile bombs like "The Rosie Show." Appearing on CBS News in April, Oprah herself seemed to sum up the dispiriting atmosphere at OWN.

"If I were writing a book about it, I might call the book '101 Mistakes,'" she said.

One of those mistakes might be the apparently vast sums of money that OWN has bled through since its inception. Bloomberg Businessweek reported last week that the network may have lost a whopping $330 million since it began in 2008. An analyst told the magazine that it was the most "successful failure in television today."

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/07/oprah-own-losses-vein_n_1495878.html

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[hlthe2b]

1. Damn... she's going to have reposess a bunch of those gifted cars, it seems...

[Dawson Leery]

2. She should have kept her daily show at 4 pm.

Trying to build an entire network around one person is not going to work. Clearly, Oprah thinks much of herself, too much.

[randome]

5. She should have found something else to do...

...that didn't involve plastering her name on everything she does. Guess the name doesn't always sell.

[nanabugg]

13. She should have just quit while she was ahead and done something useful for her charities.

She could have started an Oprah Schools for Excellence throughout the nation. 300 million would have gone a long way for our education system. But it's her money. She earned it.

[cstanleytech]

16. Might have been a 4pm show for you but I know they moved her to around 1 or 2 in the morning in my

area a few years before she ended it.

[goclark]

19. Is she still trying to make it work?

I loved to watch her on Channel 7 but it just doesn't work in the new setting IMO.

[bluedigger]

3. I guess that means she'll go broke...in another decade or so...

Oprah Winfrey
Net Worth $2.7 B As of March 2012

http://www.forbes.com/profile/oprah-winfrey/

[underpants]

4. Naw, her wealth and the corporation are completely separate

That is how it goes and she is too smart to put herself in that situation

[renate]

6. I think this is too bad

I have a few problems with Oprah--I will never forget the time, years and years ago, when she was doing a show on home decor and said "I can't imagine why anyone would ever have fake flowers." I mean, this was probably a decade ago and it still pisses me off (although when I see my complaining about it in black and white, I realize that my remembering it makes me look as petty as her statement makes her look out of touch).

But I think her desire to do good and to make people happier with their lives and with themselves is genuine. And, given that, it could very well be that she's wiser now and wouldn't say anything like that again. I'm sorry her network isn't succeeding (so far). Oprah may not be to everybody's taste, but she means well, and I think that's important.

[WinniSkipper]

21. Well said. nt

[liberal N proud]

7. Maybe she shouldn't have quit her talk show.

[Skittles]

8. hopefully her ego takes a hit along with it

[kurtzapril4]

10. +10,000. n/t

[HeiressofBickworth]

9. I learned many many years ago

just what a phoney she is. I personally know of two instances where lies were told to people to entice them onto the show and then slammed when they showed up. I avoid her and anything she sponsors. I've heard of her so-called "generosity" but since she appears to be willing to use people in one way or another, I've always thought of it as publicity stunts rather than a demonstration of any kind of human kindness on her part. When her network showed up, I deleted it from my line-up of networks I watch. I think it's long past time when she should just retire to a corner to count her money and leave the rest of the world alone.

[xtraxritical]

11. Boring as can be, she is.

[Skittles]

20. she is indeed EXTREMELY phony

but she one incredible gift: the ability to fool a LOT of people

[iemitsu]

12. i have struggled to forgive her for

having both W and Arnold on as guests during their respective campaigns.
it felt as if she was endorsing them. her loyal viewers did not benefit one bit from having either of them in office.

[Odin2005]

14. She supports anti-vax idiots like Jenny McCarthy. No sympathy.

[Marie Marie]

15. Well, since she is always about light bulb moments...

Last edited Mon May 7, 2012, 11:20 PM - Edit history (1)

here's hoping that she finally learns some humility. All the media power and money she had wasn't enough. Well, like a lot of meglomanics, she over reached and fell on her ass. And I lost FitTV in the process because her channel forced the merging of FitTV and Disc Health. And that merged channel + her OWN are much worse for it. Same old rehashed crap now shown on both networks.

[Sarcasticus]

17. $330 million?

Dear God that's almost a week's royalties!

[kas125]

18. Good!! When her show was still in Chicago and Tomas Young, the Iraq veteran from the documentary

Body of War, was transferred to a rehab hospital in Chicago, we tried and tried to get her to do a show about him and other veterans. She, or anyone from her show, never responded to a single letter or request. If she loses every penny she has on her own network which I have never watched and never will, I won't feel sorry for her at all.

[mikeytherat]

22. Oprah Winfrey was phenomenal in "The Color Purple."

Since then, however...

mikey_the_rat

[Javaman]

23. That network needs more zombies. nt

[Manifestor_of_Light]

24. She has crappy taste in music.

I remember when she had Charlotte Church on when she was a young teenager. The kid needed to stay home for a few years, let her voice mature, and learn how not to sing through her nose. Oprah also thinks Andrea Bocelli is a real opera singer. He is not. He doesn't have the chops.