Fox Business overhauls primetime lineup

Fox Business Network is overhauling its primetime lineup, dropping opinion shows for reality shows and documentaries, reports Brian Steinberg of Variety.

Steinberg writes, “Fox Business is overhauling primetime in a tricky era for media companies. More one-time TV viewers are moving to streaming outlets for entertainment and information, and the business-news category isn’t immune from the trends. CNBC’s subscriber base is projected to fall 5.1% in 2021 to 76.6 million, according to Kagan, a research firm that is part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, compared with 80.8 million last year. Fox Business’ subscribers are seen tumbling nearly 8.6% in 2021 to 70.5 million, compared with 77.1 million in the prior year.

“Fox executives have studied where the business-news crowd goes after market hours, says Petterson. ‘They go to history shows, real estate shows,’ she notes. The company has in recent months added similar topics to its streaming Fox Nation outlet, seeking to build a wider array of programs that appeal to what executives believe are lifestyle choices of Fox News viewers. Genres have also included true crime and Clint Eastwood movies. ‘We looked at the data, and it was steady and consistent,’ says Petterson. Placing some series that originate on Fox Nation on Fox Business gives the company another way to amortize costs.”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.