Categories: OLD Media Moves

The state of business news on TV

Georg Szalai and Paul Bond from The Hollywood Reporter write Friday about the state of the business news networks — CNBC, Fox Business Network and Bloomberg TV.

Szalai and Bond write, “Flush with cash, a growing, or at least stable, number of viewers, and advertisers still looking to reach the well-heeled, CNBC, Fox Business Network and Bloomberg TV are each hungry to wrest an advantage — and eat each other’s lunch.

“Biz news hasn’t been this prevalent in the headlines for years.

“Taking advantage of the country’s broad anxieties, eight of the top 10 cable biz shows are not even on those three biz channels, including ‘Your World With Neil Cavuto,’ which airs on Fox News Channel, and ‘Your Bottom Line,’ on CNN. That means there’s a larger than once thought audience for such information; but it also means the Big Three biz channels have to ward off incursions from general newsies as well as nibble at one another.

“‘The story of the last couple of years was the presidential campaign and politics. Since then the economy has totally filled the vacuum,’ says David Rhodes, head of Bloomberg TV in the U.S.

“And things may get tougher. Success during an almost unprecedented economic downturn is one thing. But what will the Big Three do when the economy improves — or (gulp) if it remains in such dire straits so long that it becomes old news?”