Oprah is finding that it's hard being on your OWN

AFP - Getty Images

Oprah Winfey's network debuted with much fanfare, but has been having issues ever since.

By Eve Tahmincioglu

Oprah Winfrey may want to consider giving away a few more free cars to help her struggling cable network.

The car giveaway episode aired in 2004, when she was at the height of her TV career hosting The Oprah Winfrey Show, seemed to be what everyone was talking about back then. Recently on the Oprah Winfrey Network, or OWN, even Oprah said the event was: One of my all-time favorite happiest moments ever.

Alas, it's unhappy times for Winfrey's OWN right now. In recent days, the network announced it was pulling the plug on The Rosie Show and also embarking on a major restructuring of the network, including laying off 30 employees.

It is difficult to make tough business decisions that affect peoples lives, said Oprah Winfrey, CEO and chief creative officer of OWN, in a statement, but the economics of a start-up cable network just dont work with the cost structure that was in place.

Its a difficult and surprising setback for the former Queen of daytime talk shows who for so long seemed to have the Midas touch whether it came to TV ratings or endorsing products.

She left all that behind and embarked on creating her own network, launching it on Jan. 1, 2011. OWN is a joint venture between her company Harpo Inc. and Discovery Communications, and replaced the Discovery Health Channel.

OWN is struggling for a number of reasons, said Jeffrey McCall, professor of media studies at DePauw University. "Oprah is not present in most of the programming," he e! xplained . "Oprah's followers like her, not necessarily her stand-ins and friends."

And, he added, "ultimately, it is quite different delivering a magic touch to a one-hour daily gabfest and trying to spring that same magic on a round-the-clock channel in which the only distinguishing characteristic is that Oprah runs it. Oprah's fans just aren't going to watch a channel because Oprah was the business entrepreneur behind it."

With the OWN restructuring changes announced Monday, it appears Discovery will take a more hands on approach with OWN in order to get it on the right track.

A veteran Discovery executive Neal Kirsch will be taking over as chief operating officer and chief financial officer of OWN. In addition, Lee Bartlett, executive vice president, global production management, business and legal affairs at Discovery will now help oversee a similar department at OWN; and Ian Parmiter, senior vice president of marketing at Discovery Ad Sales, will take over marketing for OWN.

As CEO, I have a responsibility to chart the course for long-term success for the network, Winfrey maintained. To wholly achieve that long-term success, this was a necessary next step.

Another necessary step was canceling Rosie ODonnells show, which was plagued by low ratings. According to TVGuide.com, the shows debut ratings averaged 497,000, and dropped to 204,000 last month. ODonnell taped her final show on Tuesday.

Winfrey thanked ODonnell in a statement about the axing, but added, As I have learned in the last 15 months, a new network launch is always a challenge and ratings grow over time as you continue to gather an audience.

While the company said in a statement that overall ratings at the OWN network since September have garnered a double-digit increase in ratings and a network high cumulative 40 million viewers per month, the network is costing a lot of money.

Related: Rosie ODonnell admits show cancellation was fair

A Wall Street Journal article on Tuesday said Discovery had put $312 million into OWNs operations as of the end of last year, up $254 million from Sept. 30. According to a Forbes article from last year, Discovery had initially agreed to pump $200 million into the network.

The transition from daytime TV host to cable has been rough for Winfreys brand.

While headlining her own syndicated The Oprah Winfrey Show, Oprah was unstoppable, noted Don Seaman, marketing manager for TVB, a not-for-profit trade association for the U.S. commercial broadcast television industry. But since last January shes on cable, on her OWN. The Oprah Winfrey Network, that is. And shes hardly been heard from since.