Oprah Network May Have Suffered $330M Losses: Report
Getty Images
Will Oprah Winfrey's network make it through the year? It's a popular question following a recent report of the channel's loses.
June 16, 2011: Speaking at The Cable Show! convention in Chicago, Oprah Winfrey speaks with Paula Zahn about what she's learned about launching her own network and the challenges she's faced so far.
Oprah Winfrey left Chicago last summer to try and save her struggling cable network.
According to numbers released this weekend, it hasn't worked.
The Oprah Winfrey Network suffered losses of up to $330 million since its 2008 creation, according to Bloomberg Businessweek. Now industry insiders are speculating that the network could be gone within the year if a smash hit show isn't found.
Winfrey brought Rosie O'Donnell to Chicago last year to drum up celeb-power for the channel. But she canceled "The Rosie Show"six months after it aired and even cut it off a day early.
Even when Winfrey ended her own top-rated talk show in Chicago, her network struggled.
Ratings for the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) fell from an average 204,000 viewers in its first week to 153,000 as of May 15, a week before she left Chic! ago.
After 25 years, "The Oprah Show" garnered about 7 million viewers weekly.