Discovery confronts need to hone OWN

Yakker "The Rosie Show" on OWN has seen a slide in aud amounts, specially the 25-54 femme demo, since its premiere. "Oprah's Lifeclass" started off progressively on week day primetime. Discovery Communications shipped a effective third quarter earnings report Tuesday, but a increase in its revenue and profit predictions for your twelve month wasn't enough to divert Wall Street's attention within the problems at OWN.Discovery's partnership using the famous host the famous host oprah Winfrey reaches an adverse balance for your year, with negative earnings for the tune of $55.6 000 0000, according to amounts provided by SNL Kagan. The client costs that satellite and cable operators pay to keep the funnel have dropped to 5 a sub monthly, from 7 a year ago when the funnel used to be Discovery Health, according to Kagan.Deficits for just about any startup operation are not any surprise, but OWN's growth curve remains steep since the cabler has fought mightily to attain viewer traction having its original programming. Its latest large bets, the Rosie O'Donnell yakker as well as the Winfrey fronted "Oprah's Lifeclass," have observed a pokey come from their Monday-Friday primetime runs. Discovery Boss David Zaslav preached persistence through the quarterly earnings make contact with which experts grilled him about OWN's finances. Discovery brass wouldn't disclose many particulars in regards to the partnership, but chief financial officer Kaira Singer acknowledged it had invested $12 million more inside the cabler through the quarter.For 2011, SNL Kagan thought operating expenses of nearly $160 million at OWN, and revenue of $104 million. If this involves distribution, the web is at more houses than Discovery Health, therefore it transformed, no more than 5.8 million more.Zaslav mentioned he's sure that OWN's fortunes will improve since Winfrey has become full-time Boss."We are investing a lot time to develop content that will attract the marriage visitors,Inch Zaslav mentioned. "We are building some significant audience growth and flow. Viewership expires from previous levels (and) there's some nice momentum beginning 2012. We are starting to swing within an positive direction in term of getting people to spend time around.InchFor your year so far, OWN is essentially flat in primetime as compared to the Discovery Health predecessor. After 72 hours round the air, "Rosie" and "Oprah's Lifeclass" have not yet really make a difference inside the amounts."Rosie," airing at 8 p.m., started by helping cover their typically 321,000 audiences within the first week, lowering to 229,000 in week two and 223,000 in week three. There's the same slide inside the all-important women 25-54 demo, where "Rosie" started by helping cover their typically 140,000 audiences but slid the other day to 106,000."Lifeclass," trumpeted as Winfrey's return to the airwaves, bowed to typically 310,000 total audiences in week one, lowering to 297,000 the other day. In women 25-54, the show has inched up from typically 118,000 in week anyone to 122,000 the other day.OWN's finest original success story so far might be the weekly docu-series "Our America With Lisa Ling," which started progressively taken but has proven steady progress. In October the show averaged an effective 542,000 audiences, and 230,000 in women 25-54. Reality skein "Thank you for going to Sweetie Pie's" has furthermore become some traction, yanking in 421,000 total audiences in October, including 144,000 in women 25-54. Zaslav pointed for the performance of "Our America" and "Sweetie Pie's" in safeguarding the net's performance to experts."It's like we mentioned in the beginning, it's gonna require sometime.InchDonald Leavy, Discovery's corporate communications topper, increased their mantra that new cablers take three to five years to really find their footing with audiences -- regardless of the famous host the famous host oprah Winfrey's title round the door. "Yes, it is the famous host the famous host oprah Winfrey, and so the expectation can be a litte greater, but we are happy,Inch Leavy told Variety. "We probably was without sufficient original programming once we launched. It's the right trajectory -- no an individual's stating victory, but we're seeing eco-friendly shoots."Beyond OWN, Discovery's third-quarter outcome was strong, buoyed by rise in worldwide areas. Internet gain rose to $238 million from $189 million the last year. Revenue hopped 18% to nearly $1.1 billion with 19% growth at both domestic and worldwide systems.For your twelve month, the business mentioned elevated its predictions, pegging revenue later on among $4.17 billion and $4.25 billion, and internet profit around $1 billion. Contact Mike Thielman at mike.thielman@variety.com