New Expectation for OWN: First Year Profit

I previously wrote in "OWN: The Next Biggest Part of Oprah’s Empire Starts Today" that Discovery and Oprah expects OWN (the Oprah Winfrey Network) to turn profit in year 2 or 3. Brian Stelter of New York Times reports in “A Profit Is Forecast in the First Year for Oprah’s Network”, after only a few days on air, Discovery is claiming OWN will produce a profit within its first year. It was made very clear, in the few articles I read, that Discovery and Oprah stated not to expect a first year profit. While profit expectation seems like great news, it can create a problem for OWN, Discovery and Oprah. The purpose of publicly stating to expect a profitless first year is to avoid setting a standard the network can’t reach. It’s not a low expectation but simple reality. Now, Discovery had broken this reality.

The public will expect OWN to net a profit. If it does not, the failure to live up to the expectation set by Discovery will fall on OWN, Discovery, and Oprah Winfrey. It has been said through the media coverage of the launch that OWN is a test of Oprah’s ability to adapt to cable and her business savvy to be 50% owner of a network. Any failures will fall heaviest on her.

It would be great for the network to turn a profit in the first year. Realistically, they may not. After four days, Discovery has managed to set new expectations, confuse many who were accepting of the previously expected slow start for the network, and potentially fuel a media disaster if the first year is not profitable.