BusinessWeek media writer Jon Fine writes on his blog that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has been bullish about the Fox Business News channel that is expected to launch next year for several years despite the fact that Roger Ailes, the executive who once ran CNBC and would be in charge of the channel, has been low-key about the launch.
Fine said there is enough money around to start the second business news channel.
He wrote, “TNS Media Intelligence–with the best estimates available, since NBC Universal does not break out its results–shows a truly impressive decline in ad revenues for reigning business cable player CNBC. Ad revenues topped $500 million in 2002 and were at $313.8 million last year. But the beauty of the cable business is that it features two revenue streams, one from ads and one from subscribers. CNBC is in around 90 million homes, and, according to an individual familiar with the numbers, looks likely to post its most profitable year in ’06, with net topping $275 million. To put that into perspective, last year total NBC Universal profits were around $3.7 billion. ‘CNBC still enjoys the exclusive status as the sole all-business channel,’ says John Rash, senior vice-president at ad agency Campbell Mithun. It has since CNNfn disappeared in late 2004.
“So it looks like the money is there. And all the more so should Fox expand on the focus of CNBC and ‘Fox-i-fy’ the programming in ways that CNBC’s screaming head Jim Cramer might not even recognize. Is it a good idea? Well, it is curious that Ailes has been much shier than his boss about this, since he is the guy who launched CNBC in the first place. He may be remembering that CNNfn didn’t secure a critical mass of cable subscribers at launch and be leery of talking as loudly as his boss with so few deals in place.”
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