Mike Reynolds of Multichannel News writes Monday about the progress that Fox Business Network has made in its first year. The network’s one-year anniversary is Oct. 15.
Reynolds reports that Fox Business is about to sign agreements with some cable networks that have het to pick up the business network.
Reynolds writes, “The financial upstart has built on an initial base of 30 million homes (the largest launch in cable history) and will count some 43 million subscribers by the end of October. FBN recently signed deals with U.S. Cable and Insight Communications, which next month will begin making FBN available in standard-definition in all of its markets, including Columbus, Ohio, and Louisville, Ky., and its HD feed in many of them, according to Melani Griffith, senior vice president of programming and video services at Insight. The rollouts are expected to be completed by year-end.
“In addition to rollouts with its affiliate-launch partners, FBN has gained ‘millions of homes’ from the National Cable Television Cooperative, according to Fox senior vice president of affiliate relations Tim Carry.
“Thanks to the fierce resolve of Fox News chairman and CEO Roger Ailes, few at Fox are under the impression that success will come quickly or easily. Fox News executive vice president Kevin Magee noted that it took sister service Fox News Channel five years to displace CNN at the top of the cable-news ratings charts. ‘Then, people said it was unbelievable that it happened so quickly,’ he said last Tuesday during an interview in his office, where FBN and CNBC aired side by side.
“‘Eighty percent of the time I like what I see there,’ pointing at the upstart, ‘better than that one.'”
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