Popular US billionaire TV talk show queen, Oprah Winfrey, has bought the rights to air Mandela’s film on her TV network OWN, City Press reports.

Oprah, who made much of her friendship with Madiba and attended his funeral in Qunu, bought the rights from The Weinstein Company (TWC).

OWN president Erik Logan told City Press: “We couldn’t be more honored to showcase this powerful film to the OWN viewers.”

“Nelson Mandela was Oprah’s hero and ultimately the inspiration behind Oprah’s school in South Africa. His story of forgiveness and redemption is a gift not only to the people that he touched, but to the world.”

It will however take more than three years before the film, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, to show on TV.  Long Walk – South Africa’s most expensive feature film – is being buoyed by a growing list of nominations.

It is up for best actor, original score and song at the Golden Globes next Sunday, and is expected to get several nods for the Oscars as well. the movie, starring Idris Elba and Naomie Harris, continues to garner critical acclaim across the world as its release is rolled out.

Oprah’s OWN has weathered initial gloomy predictions that it would be out of business within a few years, to end last year on a high, with a notable increase in female and African-American prime-time viewers.

After its South African premiere, Long Walk was released in the US, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Israel, Iceland, Switzerland, Belgium and the Middle East. It opened across 400 screens in the UK on Friday.