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Discovery Communications Says the $100 Million It Had Earmarked For Oprah’s New Network is Not Enough

Aug 4, 2010  •  Post A Comment

Discovery Communications said that the $100 million it had earmarked for developing Oprah Winfrey’s new network isn’t going to be enough, reports the New York Post.

The network, slated to debut in January, has cost Discovery $75 million already in investment, the company said on Tuesday during an earnings conference call. "We’re in the process of revising that contract," said Brad Singer, the company’s chief financial officer. "[The budget] likely will go up. . . the cost to launch the network, it will be higher than we had originally contemplated." He declined to say what the company expects the cost will reach, the story says.

Discovery owns half of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), with Winfrey owning the other half. While the network has greenlighted about dozen new shows, it’s only completed production on two or three nights of original programming, the story says. That means the network will fill out its schedule with reruns when it debuts, the article adds.

6 Comments

  1. oprah network will fail just like her satellite channel .ppl are realizing what a fat phony she is.

  2. Your comment would have been more credible without the use of the word fat. Now you’ve proven to be the idiot that you are. Talk about her success or failure but size has nothing to do with it.

  3. Paul, it’s not even worth it.

  4. Maybe Discovery Communications should scrap plans for the “Oprah Winfrey Network” and
    re-invest it thru their chains of cable
    channels, and leave “Discovery Health” in
    tact.

  5. Launching a new TV network is tough enough under ideal circumstances but given today’s economic climate, the fractured TV marketplace and competition from multiple sources…. I couldn’t imagine trying to launch a network and expect it to immediately succeed. My gut tells me that networks will pare down expenditures just to survive…whether the content they produce or curate will be relevant will remain to be seen.

  6. This helps in a lot of ways. Thanks!

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