ENTERTAINMENT

TV stations around the country have been paying record amounts to renew “The Oprah Winfrey Show” for a two-year period through the 1994-95 season. Most station contracts expire at the end of 1993, but distributor King World Productions has already renewed the daily talk show in about 60% of the country. The ABC-owned TV stations, faced with competing bids from CBS and NBC, had to nearly double rights payments to about $35 million, according to industry sources. In Los Angeles, KABC-TV will reportedly pay about $200,000 a week to carry Oprah. The talk show accounted for 31% of King World’s revenue last year.