HispanicBusiness

Oprah Winfrey bade a tearful goodbye to her broadcast audience on Friday, but the departure is anything but abrupt. The queen of daytime media will quit her show, produced by Harpo Inc., at the end of September 2011 -- nearly two years from now. But she'll return with a show on a cable channel named after her. Called OWN -- for The Oprah Winfrey Network -- it will be filmed in Los Angeles, not Chicago. The cable channel will be co-owned by Discovery Communications. The move means that fans of Oprah will have to pay subscriber fees to enjoy her show in the future. "Why walk away and make next season the last? Here is the real reason," she said on Friday. "I love this show. This show has been my life. And I love it enough to know when it's time to say goodbye. Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and it feels right in my spirit. It's the perfect number, the exact right time." Though still at the top of the ratings heap, Oprah's show has witnessed an unmistakable slide, with her audience dropping 7 percent last season.

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