Discovery Health Channel to be given over to Oprah

CHICAGO and SILVER SPRING – Oprah Winfrey and Discovery Communications announced plans today to create "OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network”, which will be the company’s Discovery Health Channel, rebranded. The new multi-platform media venture will be “designed to entertain, inform and inspire people to live their best lives,” says the press release. OWN will debut in 2009 in more than 70 million homes and the venture will also include the award-winning digital platform, Oprah.com. (It’s too early to say at this time whether Canwest, which now co-owns Discovery Health Canada with John Malone’s Discovery, will follow the same re-branding. Actually,...