Is the Oprah Winfrey Network a Failure Already? Some are Trying to Say that it Is

by Dr. Boyce Watkins, Syracuse University – Scholarship in Action 

 

I’m not sure if this is the right time to pass judgment on the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), since it just began.  But Alexis Stodghill at AOL Black Voices, the New York Times and others are beginning to wonder if the magic is going to last.   According to the Times:

OWN, her two-month-old channel, is attracting fewer viewers than the obscure channel it replaced, Discovery Health. At any given time this month, there have been about 135,000 people watching OWN, according to the Nielsen Company, and only about 45,000 of those people are women ages 25 to 54, the demographic that the channel is focusing on.

Those ratings levels, down about 10 percent from Discovery Health’s levels last year, are being carefully watched by people who would like to rebuild cable channels around other celebrities, and by investors who worry that OWN is a drag on Discovery’s stock.

 

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