Posted on 01/04/2005 9:44:53 PM PST by RWR8189
With a Fox business channel likely to launch, a cable brawl is ready to begin
On Dec. 15, the Time Warner ( ) cable channel CNNfn aired its final programs after years of languishing behind CNBC's business news fare. Not that CNBC ( ) doesn't have problems of its own. Its ratings have plummeted since the Internet boom went bust. And CNBC's ever-changing prime-time schedule never seems to click with viewers. Bringing financial news to TV is no sure bet.
So why does News Corp. ( ) Chairman Rupert Murdoch think he can muscle into financial TV news? Murdoch has said Fox will launch an all-business news channel in the summer of 2005. But even though his Fox News startup has eclipsed stalwart CNN in the ratings battle recently, it seems an odd time to dive into the troubled financial TV news segment.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
That stock symbol is NWS.
If cable and satellite providers carry the new FOX business channel, it may prove competitive. CNNfn's biggest problem was getting cable providers to put it on their systems, that is why they failed. They just didn't have the audience CNBC enjoys.
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I'm in.
I am still hoping for a FOX History channel. The History Channel and Discovery Time (NYT) are terrible these days. Discovery time has never been anything but schill for the Left. The History Channel had much better programing years ago when they were running mostly older documentaries. Now they are awash in revisionist history, America bashing, and sensational/titilating "history." Their editorial standards are also terrible. An 8th grade histroy student from 1950 could site a hundred hyperboles, contradictions or outright errors a dayin their broadcasts. There is far more than 24 hours a day of great historical documentary work available bu those channels are agenda driven.
I think Fox Business Channel could dethrone CNBC in a year....
IIRC NewsCorp owns the History Channel, though I may be wrong.
That wasn't CNNfn's biggest problem. IF CNN and/or Time Warner had cared, they could have played the same game with the cable companies that all the other big conglomerates like Viacom and Disney do ("Oh, you want to want to keep ESPN? Okay, then you're also going to carry Toon Disney, SoapNet, ESPN Classic..."). Sadly for CNNfn, they didn't. The only reason the channel was ever even started in the first place was because Lou Dobbs threatened to leave CNN and jump to CNBC if they didn't start their own financial news channel and let him run it. Ted Turner got scared of losing him and caved in, but it almost immediately became CNN's bastard child. They pretty much ended up treating it like GE treats MSNBC: More as a way to amortise the costs of running the NYC news bureau than as a full-fledged operation unto itself. And that showed in the programming, which in turn helped make sure the few people that did get CNNfn never had much of a desire to choose it over CNBC. The only real surprise is that it remained on the air as long as it did.
That said, CNBC has been treading water under Pamela Thomas-Graham's "leadership" (she spends about as much time writing bad novels as she does running the network), and is ripe for the picking. Its prime time is an unmitigated disaster, but the daytime schedule isn't anywhere near as good as it used to be either. Most of their anchors and reporters have been phoning it in for years now.
If Murdoch starts a Fox business news channel, it will become #1. CNBC will continue to make money, just as CNN does even though FNC's ratings are more than twice as good, but it will become the second-place news channel.
No, The Hitler Channel is 37.5% Hearst, 37.5% Disney, and 25% NBC Universal.
No way. It will take two. And if there are unexpected problems, maybe even three.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
I watching Fox news business channel rack itt
I hope my Dish network carry that
Hitler channel that so true LOLOLOL!
Come think about it every time I look something about Hitler LOL!
Thanks for the ping!
Can Murdock Outfox CNBC? Is the Pope Catholic?
Murdoch first of all needs to get overnight programming on Fox News settled in first. Something from 12-3 and then go live again at 5 AM. This 6 am crap and then tape from 11 to 6 is stupid as stupid gets. Fire the weekend crew as well. I don't get how CNN comes on at 5 as does MSNBC and Fox gives them the getting up in the morning ratings.
FoxNews Channel bump.
Wouldn't be too hard
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