On the heels of Fox hiring Alexis Glick from CNBC to be the No. 2 business news person behind Neil Cavuto comes a statement from parent News Corp. president Peter Chernin, who stated at an investor conference Tuesday that the Fox Business Channel would debut in early 2007.
Media Daily News reported, “‘We just want to make sure we have all the distribution deals locked up…and we think we’re getting pretty close to doing that,’ Chernin said yesterday at an investors’ conference.”
Later, David Goetzl wrote, “Regarding the Fox Business Channel, about half of its initial 30 million homes are likely to be customers with DirecTV, the News Corp.-owned DBS service. News Corp. has a head start in launching new cable channels, since it can instantly give a new outlet distribution in 15.5 million DirecTV homes.
“Since News Corp. acquired DirecTV three years ago, Chernin has said the company intends to use it to launch one new cable channel a year. So far, the launches have included the Fox Reality channel and Fuel. In addition to the business network, DirecTV will serve as a springboard next year for the launch of the Big Ten Channel, a joint venture between Fox and the vaunted athletic conference.”
Read more here.
