CEO: Fox Business Network has had positive impact on CNBC

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld of Multichannel News writes that NBC CEO Jeff Zucker said Monday that the new Fox Business Network has not hurt CNBC‘s ratings.

Steinert-Threlkeld wrote, “While not citing any statistics, Zucker said CNBC’s ratings have gone up during the period. The network could not have bought the kind of publicity that the advent of the rival business news network, led by one-time CNBC head Roger Ailes, has generated.

“‘We are doing two different things,’ Zucker said. CNBC, he said, remains focused on serving serious financially minded investors with its coverage of markets and economics.

“Fox is doing, he said, ‘something lighter and not as investor-focused’

“‘You have to give them credit for getting on the air,’ he said. That is no mean feat, at present when cable and satellite operators are faced with intense competition for space on their channel lineups, with analog, digital and HD channels all looking for carriage, and funding of startup channels hard to come by.”

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