Walt Disney Co

Something surprising, even shocking, just happened to cable television--besides Lou Dobbs stepping down from CNN, that is. Oprah Winfrey, the reigning queen of talk shows, magazines, book clubs and much more, announced that she is shutting down her dominating daytime talk show, The Oprah Winfrey Show , as of 2011 and is moving to a new cable network bearing her name: The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN). Not only will this shift potentially bring a significant chunk of network viewers to the subscription tel

Women already represent a sizable percentage of the American workforce, and we are a powerful consumer base   -Salaam Coleman Smith

 

Oprah Winfrey is a smart cookie. I am guessing she knows all too well that you can make more money in cable than you can on a TV network. If it's like other cable networks, her new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which she co-owns with Discovery Communications ( DISCA ), will be much more profitable than the TV networks.  

Oprah Winfrey is a smart cookie. I am guessing she knows all too well that you can make more money in cable than you can on a TV network. If it's like other cable networks, her new Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), which she co-owns with Discovery Communications ( DISCA ), will be much more profitable than the TV networks.  

Discovery Communications . The company is known for "real-world" programming across a wide platform of cable channels, including the Discovery Channel (aimed at armchair adventurers), TLC (for women and homebodies) and Animal Planet (for animal lovers). It has tapped into the public's fascination with extraordinary everyday dramas among human- and animalkind.  

Smoking cigarettes, swilling beer, shooting guns, tossing his girlfriend out of an airplane because she won't kiss him...once upon a time, Mickey Mouse was a bit of a badass. But the fun-loving, anarchistic rodent envisioned by Walt Disney in the old-school 'toons of the 1920s has vanished, replaced by a sweet but slightly sterile mascot, better known for T-shirts and wristwatches than any sort of shenanigans. While the Walt Disney Company would never mess with Mickey Mouse's squeaky clean image, they  

 

As a mother, I would do almost anything to give my children a leg up in life. This is true, I think, for most conscientious parents. Call it biological imperative, if you will.  

Ralph Roberts knew he was onto something big when people ran after his cable TV trucks in Tupelo, Miss., asking for a visit to their homes. It was 1963. Roberts had been looking for new ventures after selling his belt-and-suspenders company.

It just looked to me like a wonderful business. Without doing too much, you just put up an antenna, ran some cables and people paid you $5 a month ... to bring in TV stations   -Ralph Roberts

 

U.S. stocks finished the week mixed, after reaching new highs for the year earlier on the week. The NASDAQ Composite and S&P broke two weeks of consecutive gains, while the Dow posted a small gain of 0.46%. Index Impact: