Oprah’s OWN television network has yet to gain a steady stream of income for the mogul. In fact, the channel hasn’t even begun to get lukewarm. According to a recent report, the losses at Oprah Winfrey’s struggling cable channel are up to $330 million.
TV industry insiders are predicting that OWN will have to close its doors before the year is over.
According to a Businessweek magazine report, Discovery, which partnered 50-50 with Winfrey, has invested close to $600 million in the venture since 2008.
“OWN may have lost as much as $330 million,” the magazine reports. One Wall Street media analyst was quoted in the story saying that OWN was the most “successful failure in television today”.
David Zaslav, the C.E.O of Discovery Communications is who convinced Winfrey to start OWN. The Discovery boss is known to be non-tolerant with the idea of losing money within his company. In the past, he shut down a channel Discovery operated, Planet Green, to replace it with was an eco channel.
“I really can’t see Zaslav losing this kind of money for much longer,” a former business associate said on the dismal situation.
