Discovery Communications and Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Productions signed a deal to remake Discovery Health as the Oprah Winfrey Network. The pact will give Harpo 50% control of the network, and Discover Communications will grab 50% of oprah.com. Oprah gets editorial control, Discovery gets a cash machine. For now, Oprah’s signature product, The Oprah Winfrey Show, won’t air on the network. The current syndication deal – which runs through May 2011 – prohibits a cable network repeat. “This is an evolution of what I’ve been able to do every day,” Winfrey said. “I will now have the opportunity to do this 24 hours a day on a platform that goes on forever.”
Discovery Health, by the way, is in more than 70 million homes.
Advertisement