With the Canadian launch of the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) less than a week away, Corus Entertainment, the channel’s Canadian broadcaster, has signed up four charter sponsors.

The Brick, General Mills, L’Oreal and Nissan have all been confirmed for 18-month partnerships. The campaigns will be created with each sponsor and could include contests, branded content, product integration, blended tune-in spots, programming lineups and online campaigns with big box and leaderboard ads.

ZenithOptimedia handled the deal for L’Oreal and General Mills, The Brick’s media was handled by Espresso and Nissan worked with OMD.

Corus gave Canadians a chance to watch OWN shows in the lead-up to the launch, with nested blocks on W and Viva through January and February.

In an interview with MiC sister publication Playback Daily, Susan Schaefer, vice president and head of networks and marketing, at Corus Television, said that opening ad rates for OWN Canada will be at or around the same cost-per-point as W Network.

‘We went out the gates on this knowing there’s huge ad interest in this brand and network and we really believe that Oprah and OWN deserve a great rate, a premium price, because of the value of the brand,’ she says.

The OWN channel will run on what is currently Viva and will be available in six million homes in Canada.

With files from Playback Daily