Countdown to the CNBC vs. Fox war

Ronald Grover and Diane Brady of BusinessWeek take a look in the latest issue at the upcoming business news war between CNBC and Fox Business Network.

Grover and Brady wrote, “Chances are, though, that Fox’s channel could end up looking a lot like CNBC, at least during the trading day. Hoffman acknowledges that Ailes–who ran the channel for three years before he left for Fox in 1996–tried to entice superstar Jim Cramer, whose high-voltage persona has helped boost prime-time ratings at CNBC. Ailes will probably approach the network’s other brand name, Maria Bartiromo, whom he first put on air in 1993, when her contract expires in two years. (Bartiromo is also a BusinessWeek columnist.) And he may be interested in hiring Liz Claman, the former CNBC anchor, after her noncompete agreement ends in mid-October. For now, FBN’s headliner is ‘tear up your credit card’ radio financial guru Dave Ramsey, who will have a prime-time show. Ailes declined to comment.

“Over at CNBC, Jeff Zucker, the head of NBC Universal, is using the high-profile Today show to promote his business channel. And CNBC is likely to focus anew on prime time with shows like American Greed and the edgier Fast Money with Dylan Ratigan, which it will move to the important 5 p.m. slot.

“But the real conundrum for CNBC is its relationship with The Wall Street Journal now that Murdoch is buying Dow Jones & Co., the paper’s owner, for $5 billion. CNBC has a contract, which lasts five more years, that gives it exclusive access to Journal reporters for straight business news. Murdoch, however, says they can appear on FBN to talk about topics such as personal finance. And, though neither side will say anything now, Murdoch is probably calculating how much he will have to pay to end the arrangement with CNBC altogether.”

Read more here.