The slow, steady growth of Fox Business

Sarah Barry James of SNL Financial in Charlottesville, Va., looks at Fox Business Network and its growth in a story where its subsidiary SNL Kagan projects the network will have $169.4 million in operating revenue in 2012 and be in more than 72 million homes.

James writes, “‘The thing that strikes me about CNBC is just how old it is with the high median age of the viewer,’ Adgate said. ‘Again, that stems from the limitations of Nielsen to measure viewing outside of the home. You have a lot of retired people who are home watching their investments or doing day trading.’

“Younger viewers, meanwhile, might be watching CNBC or FOX Business at work, but those eyeballs are not counted.

“Compiling data from Nielsen, Adgate tracked the viewership of FOX Business and CNBC between May 2010 and April 2011. He found that during prime time, FOX Business has a 0.04 household rating, with 47,000 households viewing. During the broadcast day, the network’s household rating was still 0.04, with 48,000 households viewing. Looking at just the workweek between 10 a.m. and 4:30 p.m., the network’s household rating was 0.05, with 55,000 households viewing. The median age for viewers during those three day parts was 61.8 years, 62.4 years and 61.2 years, respectively.

“By comparison, NBCUniversal Media LLC‘s CNBC had a household rating of 0.15 during prime time with 178,000 households viewing, a broadcast day household rating of 0.15 with 169,000 households viewing, and a workday rating of 0.21 with 247,000 households viewing. The median age for viewers during those three day parts, respectively, was 54.8 years, 60.5 years and 64.9 years.”

Read more here. DISCLOSURE: I was editor in chief of SNL Financial in 2001-02.