Winfrey Giving Oxygen Series

Oprah Winfrey, one of the co-founders of Oxygen Media, will bring her talents to the year-old network in the summer in the form of 12 episodes of a half-hour series that explore the power of giving through Winfrey's eyes.

"We've always known she was going to be on the network," Oxygen CEO and chairman Geraldine Laybourne said. "She pitched this show idea to us, and we thought it was perfect because it's the essence of what Oprah cares about — real women using their lives to make a difference."

In addition, two movies from Winfrey's Harpo Prods. — "There Are No Children Here" and "Overexposed" — will make their cable premieres on Oxygen this year. They previously aired on ABC.

Oxygen also announced a new half-hour weekly show to be hosted by financial expert, author and New York Times columnist Laura Pedersen. The show debuts April 14 at 12:30 p.m. and repeats Sundays. Pedersen will provide timely tips on hot stocks to the latest business ideas, celebrity profiles, personal triumphs and entrepreneurship.

Oxygen is also growing in distribution. Laybourne said that during the first quarter of this year, Oxygen will add 1 million subscribers in 26 markets, including Buffalo, N.Y., Orange County, Calif., New Orleans, Monterey, Calif., Roanoke, Va., Morgan Town, W.V., Santa Barbara, Calif., Jeffersonville, Ind., Niagara Falls, N.Y., and Colorado Springs, Colo. Insight Communications, Charter Communications, Cox Communications and AT&T Broadband will distribute the network in these markets.

Laybourne said Oxygen should be in 32 million homes by the end of next year. And what about gaining carriage on the Time Warner Cable system in New York?

"I'm optimistic we'll have an announcement this year," she said.