Oprah Winfrey's OWN Expects Profit in First Year

Oprah Winfrey's OWN Network expects to make a profit its first year.

The cable channel - which averaged 1 million viewers the first night of its Jan. 1 primetime debut - should be “EBITDA positive” in 2011 “because of ad acceptance and good performance," Discovery Communications' chief financial officer, Brad Singer, said at an investor conference Tuesday, according to The New York Times. (EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.)   Winfrey's network has a lot to live up to: As The Hollywood Reporter previously reported, it has been three years in the making at a cost of nearly $200 million. Winfrey, nearly 57, also is stepping down from her popular daytime show later this year to focus on OWN.   Discovery previously warned analysts not to expect OWN to earn a profit before 2012 or 2013.