It’s not business for Tyler Perry, this time, it’s personal.
Tyler Perry made an important decision that will greatly impact his pal Oprah Winfrey’s TV network business. Perry will now make OWN his TV platform and this is a huge win for the “queen of talk.”
Starting in mid-2013, Perry will introduce two new scripted series with Winfrey’s joint venture with Discovery. For Winfrey, adding Perry’s shows will be a perfect fit to OWN’s aspirational female-targeted brand.
Oprah is banking that this new deal with Perry means a ratings boost to OWN, which will help the struggling network climb to profitability in 2013. “At the very least, OWN will break even,” promised David Zaslav, Discovery CEO. “Perry could increase the prime time audience at OWN by 10% or more even with smaller ratings than he generates at TBS.”
“Breaking even,” is just what OWN needs. For Perry, it’s a win-win because his shows have lost ratings on the Time Warner-owned network.
According to industry TV monitors, “overall his shows account for about 2% of TBS’ prime time audience this quarter, down from approximately 7% last year.”
Meanwhile, Perry’s contribution to Lionsgate, which syndicates his shows for the past couple of years as the runs of [Tyler Perry’s House Of Payne and Meet The Browns] have ended. Lionsgate probably makes higher profits from recent TV syndication deals than it did with Perry.
Tyler Perry’s bold decision to support Oprah’s network by pulling his TV programs from TBS and giving them exclusively to OWN is an important example of how Latinos should also unite and support other Latinos. Who will be the first Latino to make an audacious decision like Perry’s?
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