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Oprah Winfrey Network inks deal with Comcast

Indiantelevision.com Team

( 3 April 2012 2:46 pm)

MUMBAI: Oprah Winfrey Network, the joint-venture between popular American talk show host and Discovery Communications, has entered into a distribution contract with Comcast Corporation.

The deal will come as a boost for Own, which has been grappling with sluggish growth due to management turmoil and cost overruns, as it will give the network access to 17 million Comcast subscribers and thereby increase its subscription revenues.

Comcast has agreed to pay subscriber fees for the channel at the start of next year. The cable operator currently carries the channel without paying subscriber fees.

Research firm SNL Kagan said the channel's average subscription fee is two cents a household per month, well below most other channels.

The research firm also estimated Own's average subscription fee to rise 15 cents a subscriber per month, amounting to more than $153 million for next year, up from $29 million this year.

Last month, Own had carried restructuring of its network operations in Los Angeles and New York eliminating 30 positions and redistributing those responsibilities to Discovery Communications and Harpo Studios.