Fox Business Channel to debut in mid-2007

Fox News Channel CEO Roger Ailes and News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch spoke with Multichannel News editor of digital news Steve Donohue and news editor Mike Reynolds last week about a wide range of topics, including the impending rollout of the new Fox Business Channel, slated for 2007.

What’s below is an excerpt from the interiew.

MCN: What’s the channel’s name?

Murdoch: At the moment, it’s the Fox Business Channel.

MCN: You’ll have 30 million homes — is this a go now?

Ailes: We’d like to have 25 to 30 million homes to launch, and I think that’s about where we’ll be. It will be a strong launch.

MCN: Mid-next year is the time frame?

Ailes: That’s the target. We hired [Today co-host] Alexis Glick. She’s working with [vice president of business news] Neil Cavuto and a couple of my executives.

We have to build another studio and control room and a couple of things like that, so we are in the planning stage now, and we’re optimistic about some kind of launch next year.

MCN: You built Fox News with people that weren’t necessarily household names. Can you do the same with the business channel, or will you go after some of CNBC’s talent?

Ailes: I won’t go after anybody’s talent. I don’t think that’s right. But I’ve certainly had people call me. There are only a few people at CNBC that I think really are strong, but I have a track record of trying to find new people and present them.

MCN: Are you taking CNBC Mad Money host Jim Cramer’s call?

Ailes: Jim’s had a problematic relationship with everyone he’s ever known — I’m no exception. On the other hand, he and I get along fine; he did work here for a while. If he called me and wanted to have lunch, I’d do it. That’s not to say one way or the other whether I’d be thinking about that.

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