Tyler Perry and Oprah Winfrey partnership deal yielding results as OWN begins to make money faster than anticipated

The partnership between Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry has yielded results – only 9 months after it was announced that Perry would start to produces shows exclusively for OWN – Oprah Winfrey’s Network.

OWN is making money four years after its debut, as stronger ratings and advertising growth helped turn around the joint venture with Discovery Communications Inc. sooner than expected.

The news was a bright spot for Discovery, which jointly owns the two-year old channel. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav said OWN benefited greatly from two popular new series by producer Tyler Perry, “The Have and Have Nots” and “Love Thy Neighbor.”

“OWN is now cash flow positive and starting to pay down the investment Discovery has made in the venture,” Zaslav said.

Winfrey, known as the “queen of talk,” had admitted in a TV interview to making “101 mistakes” when launching the network. The mix of in-depth interviews with celebrities and feel-good programs did not initially translate to the ratings success Winfrey had seen on broadcast TV for years.

OWN has since gone through layoffs, executive departures and a reshuffling of its programming lineup to add more scripted shows. It also has been selling some of Oprah’s talk shows overseas, including to the United Kingdom.

On Tuesday, it was revealed that OWN had signed on 30 new advertising partners and had the “highest growth of any cable network in the second quarter.”

Read more: New York Daily News