The New York Post’s Michael Shain reports Tuesday that the Oprah Winfrey Network faces a “reboot” in an effort to “win back” viewers. Shain suggests “network officials have quietly been telling worried advertisers that OWN…will begin reshuffling its lineup in the next few weeks and investing millions” to fire up the fledgling channel.
OWN, which started two months ago with a flurry of media buzz and millions of dollars in promotion, has seen viewership dip–at one point even sliding below the levels of the Discovery Health channel, which was shelved to make room for OWN. To address that, the network’s biggest hit, Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes, will move to Sunday night:
“Ever since the launch, they’ve been kind of dark,” said one media exec close to OWN. “The intention is to get back out there and let people know.” Moving “Behind the Scenes” — which chronicles the final season of Winfrey’s daytime talk show — from Friday to Sunday night is the first step.
Shain reports there’s a lot on the line for OWN, which launched with platinum-level advertiser support:
Advertisers like Procter & Gamble agreed to pay the network $100 million for the first three years, unprecedented for a cable channel that was started from scratch, based solely on Oprah’s reputation.
OWN soon will have to show that it can deliver Oprah-sized audiences — and so far that has eluded them.
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