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| Oprah Winfrey (via) |
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Under "a multiyear licensing deal" with Amazon, Oprah Winfrey will produce "twice-a-week video podcasts beginning this summer, create specials focused on her Favorite Things and Book Club labels, and repurpose the 25-season library from the Oprah Winfrey Show," the New York Times reported.
Amazon believes it can expand the reach of Oprah's book club via Audible, Kindle, Amazon.com, and Goodreads. A landing page for Oprah on Amazon.com will include her annual holiday list of favorite products.
Launched in 2024, Oprah's podcast channel has "a subscriber base of 913,000," the Times wrote, and includes interviews with authors as well as celebrities and influencers. The podcasts usually run an hour and often attract a million viewers. The shows have been and will continue to be available on YouTube, but now will also be available on a range of Amazon services, including Prime Video and Audible.
Oprah emphasized the possibility of growing her audience, saying, "Expanding our reach globally is an opportunity I embrace, as we continue to connect through stories that invite new ways of seeing, and hopefully deepen, understanding."
Amazon noted the growing popularity of video podcasts. Amazon v-p Steve Boom called the move "the ultimate validation of where the world is going. You have the most influential talk show host in history, by orders of magnitude, leaning heavily into this new world. Now we see where the world is going and we at Amazon are just happy to be along for the ride."