LOS ANGELES, (Reuters) – Oprah Winfrey, one of the  most influential and highly paid women on television, will  announce yesterday she is ending her popular daytime talk show  in 2011.

Winfrey’s production company, Harpo Inc, said yesterday  she would make the official announcement on Friday’s live  program from Chicago and talk about the reasons behind the  decision to end it after 25 years on the air.

She is expected to move to cable network OWN, or Oprah  Winfrey Network, a Los Angeles-based joint venture she formed  with Discovery Communications Inc, when her current syndication  deal for “The Oprah Winfrey Show” runs out in 2011. OWN will be  available in more than 70 million homes.

Harpo declined to comment on whether or when a revised form  of the program might appear on OWN, whose launch has been  delayed several times since its original 2009 start date.

“The Oprah Winfrey Show,” broadcast from Chicago on ABC  stations across the United States and in more than 140  countries overseas, is one of the TV industry’s biggest  money-makers. It is the top-rated U.S. daytime talk show,  averaging 7.1 million viewers this year.

Winfrey, 55, is considered a major opinion-maker in the  United States and this year was No. 45 on Forbes magazine’s  list of the world’s most powerful people.