Fear meets greed vs. entertainment at CNBC

Howard Homonoff writes for Forbes.com about how business news network CNBC is presenting its primetime content in an entertaining way.

Homonoff writes, “During daytime (‘Business Day’ being the preferred moniker) CNBC has been the electronic journal of record for the financial markets, usually attained its highest ratings, and certainly garnered its highest ad revenues and profits. The morning Squawk Box program – where ‘fear meets greed’ in Hoffman’s lexicon – always led the way in setting a blended tone of personality, flair and even – wait for it – fun to go along with a ‘sophisticated’ take on money and markets.

“More recently, CNBC has crafted a primetime programming lineup that tackles business from an entertainment first approach. Hoffman notes that CNBC viewers ‘want to be entertained but educated’ at the same time. Primetime now includes reruns of the long-running ABC show ‘Shark Tank,’ the perfect CNBC blend of entertainment, business learning, and personality, to go along with originals such as ‘The Profit’ and the new ‘West Texas Investors Club’ (not up my alley so much, but a clever blend of Duck Dynasty meets Beverly Hillbillies meets Shark Tank). And this is programming with a more ‘evergreen’ quality that should work as well on digital platforms from TV Everywhere to Netflix. According to CNBC, it now serves the second most affluent audience among primetime entertainment networks after HGTV. I guess folks with money do occasionally watch something other than PBS and Netflix documentaries (pause for the lack of surprise here).

“Still, business or business news programming is hardly an easy or automatic pathway to success.”

Read more here.