The Chicago Tribune reports that American talk show host and humanitarian Oprah Winfrey has teamed up with Discovery Communications to launch the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), set to launch in the second half of 2009 in 70 million homes.
A globally recognisable multi-media giant, 53-year old Winfrey’s Chicago-based empire already includes the daily talk show “The Oprah Winfrey Show’, “O Magazine’, a satellite radio channel called “Oprah & Friends’, as well as a film and television production company.
OWN is a multi-platform venture which will include www.oprah.com. It will be jointly owned by Discovery and Winfrey’s Harpo Productions. Winfrey will be not only be chairwoman of the network but retain editorial control.
Winfrey told the Chicago Tribune that part of her rationale for embarking on this new venture was the hard fact that at some stage her syndicated daily talk show would come to an end. OWN will allow Winfrey to extend the Oprah brand and vision 24 hours a day and give opportunities to a number of people.
