US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey moves her podcast, books and products to Amazon
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
Oprah Winfrey's podcast channel, which she started at the end of 2024, has a subscriber base of 913,000.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Nicole Sperling
NEW YORK – If you needed more proof that video podcasts are the new talk show, here it is: Oprah Winfrey is coming to Amazon.
On April 27, the tech giant said it had reached a multi-year licensing deal with the American former doyenne of daytime talk shows, who 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 (1986 to 2011).
The deal is similar in scope to the US$100 million ($128 million) agreement Amazon reached in 2024 for American professional football players Jason and Travis Kelce’s podcast, New Heights, and signifies the company’s growing ambitions in video podcasts.
The move represents a significant third act for Winfrey, 72. In the past few years, she has dabbled in podcasting with The Oprah Podcast, a channel on YouTube, while pursuing other endeavours including producing period drama The Color Purple (2023), a film for Warner Bros., and sharing her weight-loss journey while on GLP-1 drugs.
Her podcast channel, which she started at the end of 2024, has a subscriber base of 913,000. It features weekly interviews with celebrities, book authors and other influencers and is produced by her company, Harpo Entertainment. The show’s format with Amazon will remain the same.
The episodes often generate more than one million views. Some, like her interview with billionaire beauty entrepreneur Anastasia Soare, attracted five million.
Those shows will still be available on YouTube, as will all her new content. But beginning in July, the podcasts will also be available across Amazon’s services including Prime Video, Amazon Music, Fire TV Channels and Audible. Amazon executives are hopeful that the popularity of her podcast will get supercharged as a result.
“Hosting this podcast allows me to continue the work I feel called to do – opening the door for conversations that matter,” Winfrey said in a statement.
In August, Amazon split its podcast company, Wondery, into two businesses. It put scripted audio shows under its Audible division and all talk show-style video podcasts at a newly named division called Creator Services.
The shows under Creator Services are being marketed in many different ways across Amazon’s various channels and businesses. For Winfrey, that will include a landing page on Amazon for her Favorite Things franchise, an annual holiday list of some of her favourite products.
In addition, Amazon plans to promote Winfrey’s popular book club, which has its 30th anniversary in September 2026. NYTIMES
