OWN is a partnership between Discovery and Oprah Winfrey. While South Africa is the only country where Oprah Winfrey's O Magazine has a bespoke and unique magazine version and is also the place where she built and runs her private girls' school - the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls - the country has not seen regular new Oprah Winfrey OWN programming since the end of her talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show.
A few OWN series, Your OWN Show on Mzansi Magic and Welcome to Sweetie Pies shown in South Africa as Soul Food Family on TLC were seen here already but there's been no steady stream of Oprah Winfrey talk or Oprah Winfrey TV channel content since her Oprah Winfrey Show went off the air.
A few once-off episodes of Oprah's Next Chapter shown on Discovery Networks International's TLC channel in South Africa with Justin Bieber and Lance Armstrong drew record ratings and created big buzz for the TLC channel. Her documentary about her girls' school was also shown internationally first in South Africa, also on TLC.
Since May an OWN block of programming was added to TLC in the United Kingdom.
Now another Discovery channel in Australia will starting showing a block of programming from OWN from August, including Oprah's Next Chapter, Super Soul Sunday, America with Lisa Ling and Season 25: Oprah Behind the Scenes - the revealing reality show which documented the final year of the popular talk show behind the scenes.
"OWN programming is the perfect complement to the lifestyle and entertainment shows airing on Discovery Networks International's popular female flagship brands," says Luis Silberwasser, the executive vice president and chief content officer at Discovery Networks International in a press statement about the OWN programming block being added in Australia.
"With the block's successful launch in the United Kingdom now under our belts, we are primed to bring this robust offering to Australian audiences."
It's not clear why Luis Silberwasser would make this statement but DNI not do a similar OWN block for TLC in South Africa and Africa where Oprah Winfrey is and has been a much bigger star than in the United Kingdom and Australia.
In April, before the OWN block started on TLC in the United Kingdom from May, TV with Thinus asked through DNI's South African PR agency whether it the OWN programming will also be coming to TLC in South Africa, but was told then that there's no such plans.
