As Lance Armstrong’s personal brand and fortune hits the skids, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN and partner Discovery Communications are reaping the benefits.

The question is to what extent the interview with the disgraced cyclist will serve as a turning point for her eponymous network, which launched on Jan. 1, 2011.

Discovery has invested more than $400 million in OWN, and says the channel will turn a profit for the first time in the second half of 2013.

OWN is turning a corner on per-subscriber fees from some of the biggest U.S. cable and satellite operators, with a reach of 83 million homes and the contractual ability to boost those subscriber fees two years post-launch now kicking in.

So is OWN finally ready for prime time, and will the Armstrong exclusive enhance the network's performance?Continue reading...

Oprah Winfrey and Discovery's OWN TV channel sets ad premium Lance Armstrong TV confession while his personal brand redemption bid is seen as falling short.

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The Lance Armstrong saga is turning into a miniseries.

The OWN Network announced Tuesday that Oprah Winfrey's interview with the tarnished cyclist, taped on Monday in Austin, Tex., will air over two nights — Thursday and Friday — instead of one.

Winfrey calls her "no-holds barred" interview the biggest of her career "in terms of its exposure." 

During the interview, Armstrong is said to confess to Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs to win the Tour de France. Both he and Winfrey have not spoken publicly about the specific details revealed, but Winfrey told "CBS This Morning" on Tuesday: "By the time I left Austin and landed in Chicago, you all had already confirmed it."Continue reading...

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Strange bedfellows, Lance Armstrong and Oprah Winfrey, but their "emotional" interview that was taped on Monday and will air on OWN and run on Oprah.com on Thursday, may be the million dollar ticket back for the struggling former queen of daytime as she returns to what she does best.

Oprah’s Midas touch for grabbing celebrities remains golden at her own cable network, including an exclusive with Whitney Houston’s daughter following the singer’s death, then the artful dodger, David Letterman, and now Armstrong, the iconic super-athlete dragged down by a doping scandal of unprecedented proportion that saw sponsors including Nike pull their support.

The Armstrong interview will set a record for the Discovery-backed OWN and for Oprah.com, also a vindication for Brand Oprah, whose OWN has struggled since launching two years ago.Continue reading...

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Lance Armstrong to discuss doping in exclusive live-streamed Oprah Winfrey interview as new allegations arise.

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