In a wide-ranging interview with Hollywood Reporter chief media editor Andrew Wallenstein, NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker said that business news cable network CNBC, an NBC subsidiary, is in a strong position to compete against the upcoming Fox Business Network.
The Fox Business Network is slated to begin airing on Oct. 15.
Zucker said, “If this were two years ago, I would be far more concerned. CNBC has transformed itself into a strong and thriving operation under Mark Hoffman’s leadership. We feel very comfortable with where CNBC is at today. We don’t take any new competitor lightly. We’re not going to make the same mistake CNN made when Fox News Channel came along a decade ago.
“We’ll be strong and aggressive and continue to prove what makes CNBC by far the leading financial news broadcaster in the world. With all due respect to the success that News Corp. has had in many different places, just because Rupert Murdoch wants to launch something, it doesn’t mean it’s an automatic success. I think there is a degree of irony that the company that broke the story that Rupert Murdoch wanted to buy Dow Jones was CNBC.”
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