Fox to launch business channel

[Logan13]

Fox to launch business channel
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/14102007/...s-channel.html

There's much buzz in the business world about media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Network (FBN), which launches on Monday.

Murdoch - whose News Corp. empire includes the Fox broadcast network, Hollywood studio Twentieth Century Fox and numerous newspapers in Australia and the U.K.- has promised his new channel will aim for Main Street and not Wall Street.

In other words, he's hoping to challenge CNBC's business broadcasting supremacy.

"Our goal is to essentially broaden the pie that watches business news," said Kevin Magee, the Fox News executive in charge of the new business channel, which will be beamed into 34 million homes in the U.S. at first.

Magee wouldn't divulge programming details except to say it will focus on de-mystifying the financial world and attracting the average investor who may be put off by the way business news is presented.

Viewers are likely to see shows on saving for retirement or buying a house.

The New York-based FBN attracted a business star last week, Carly Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard Co.

Others on the FBN's payroll include Alexis Glick, an ex-CNBC correspondent, and Neil Cavuto, a popular Fox News Channel host.

Roger Ailes, who once ran CNBC in the early 1990s, will head the new network.

Murdoch's FBN has been in planning stages for two years. The 76-year-old Australian mogul surprised the media world earlier in 2007 with an unsolicited bid for Dow Jones & Co., which netted him the Wall Street Journal.

In the media industry, Murdoch appears to have the golden touch. When he started Fox News 11 years ago, he was derided for daring to challenge CNN. Now Fox News averages 1.5 million viewers daily compared to CNN's 758,000.

"Success might take a while, but this is the right thing for them to do," said Porter Bibb of Mediatech Capital Partners, which invests in the media business.

"Every poll shows that people are concerned with economics above all else, except maybe war."

CNBC restructures programming

CNBC officials have been anticipating the competition, recently adding a business newsmagazine and a personal investment program called Fast Money. Personal finance guru Suze Orman was also given a weekend show.

"The question isn't whether we're ready for them, but whether they're ready for CNBC," said Mark Hoffman, CNBC's president.

FBN is likely to get more viewership than CNBC's average of 267,000.

But Bibb predicted FBN would still bleed millions in its first few years compared to CNBC's healthy bottom line.

The difference is that CNBC's programming targets big companies and high rollers and can therefore demand lofty advertising rates from financial firms, insurance and luxury travel companies.

Bibb predicted FBN would change its focus from the average investor to big business before long.

"[FBN] will end up being a lot more like CNBC than what they let on," said Bibb.

[Tock]

Fox News averages 1.5 million viewers daily compared to CNN's 758,000.

Matthew 7:13 --
. . . wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.