Oprah Fans Angry at Having to Pay Higher Cable Bills to Watch OWN

Three days in, and so far it looks as though Oprah Winfrey's decision to launch her OWN network was a sound one. Ratings are solid and the critical reception has been less harsh than was anticipated.

However, it seems as though all is not well with one group. It's been reported that some die-hard Oprah fans are angry that they could not receive the new OWN network without paying to upgrade their cable TV packages -- money that several said they could not afford.

Via the OWN message boards one fan in New Orleans congratulated Oprah on the new venture, but was concerned that "many people in our area will not be able to watch" the pay-to-view OWN channel. "We love you and will miss you," the fan wrote.

Another fan wrote that "I just cannot tell you how disillusioned [I am]. ... Oprah, did I miss the show that told us your new network was gonna cost us (the viewer) $$$$."

OWN is available in 80 million homes -- around 67 percent of US households -- on the channel that used to be occupied by Discovery Health. But it's not available to basic cable subscribers, many of whom, according to The New York Post, have "flooded" the OWN message boards in recent days to say that they cannot aford to upgrade their subscription.

However, viewing figures show that an average of just over 1 million viewers did tune in for primetime Saturday, which is a huge increase over the 250,000 or so that Discovery Health was pulling in. It was also the third biggest ad-supported cable network with its target audience, women aged 25-54.

To read what our own Bob Sassone had to say about his day with OWN, click here.