• Bloomberg, Monday, December 13, 2010 12:43 AM

OWN, Oprah Winfrey network, which Oprah's holding company Harpo will own jointly with Discovery, is not a sure bet. Some cable and satellite operators are resisting Discovery's demands for fees triple what they are paying for Discovery Health, the channel being converted to OWN. Advertisers coaxed aboard with a personal call from Oprah will want to see healthy ratings.

"No one has ever created a whole channel with original programming [like this] from scratch," says Ron Schneier, chief operating officer of online advertising service MyVideoRights and a former executive at A&E Channel. "It has its share of risks." For now, she's committed to appear on OWN only 70 hours a year, and will be seen on specials and a reality show chronicling her program's final season.

OWN will generate $101.7 million in ad revenues its first year, up from the $18 million that Discovery Health collected last year, estimates Derek Baine, an analyst with cable research firm SNL Kagan. He forecasts that Oprah and Discovery will spend more than $162.3 million next year on programming.

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