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Fox Business Network
Logo for Fox Business Network
Launched	October 15, 2007
Owned by	News Corporation
Picture format	480i (SDTV) 720p (HDTV)
Slogan	Opportunity. Pure and simple.
Country	United States
Broadcast area	United States Australia
Headquarters	1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York City
Sister channel(s)	Fox News Channel
Website	foxbusiness.com
Availability
Satellite
DirecTV	359 (SD/HD)
Dish Network	206 (SD) 9476 (HD)
Cable
Available on most cable systems	Check Local Listings for channels
IPTV
Sky Angel	319
Verizon FiOs	117 (SD) 617 (HD)

Fox Business Network is an American cable news and satellite news channel that commenced broadcasting on October 15, 2007.^[1] It is owned by the Fox Entertainment Group, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. The network discusses business and financial news and currently is available in about 49 million places in the United States as of June 2009.

History

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch confirmed the launch at his keynote address at the 2007 McGraw-Hill Media Summit on February 8, 2007. Day-to-day operations are run by Kevin Magee, executive vice president of Fox News; Neil Cavuto manages content and business news coverage. Ray Hennessey directs the FoxBusiness.com website.^[2]

Murdoch had publicly stated that if the purchase of The Wall Street Journal went through and if it were legally possible, he would have rechristened the channel with a name that has "Journal" in it.^[3] However, on July 11, 2007, the parent company, News Corp, announced that the new channel would be called Fox Business Network (FBN).^[4] This name Fox Business Network was chosen over Fox Business Channel due to the pre-existing (though seldom used) legal abbreviation of FBC for Fox Broadcasting Company.^[5]

The network is placed on channel 43 in the New York City market, an important market for financial news. It is paired with Fox News on the dial, which moved to channel 44. CNBC is on channel 15 under the Time Warner lineup in New York. FBN is not paired on the Cablevision lineup.^[6] According to an article in MultiChannel News magazine, NBC Universal paid up to "several million dollars" in order to ensure that CNBC and Fox Business would be separated on the dial, and in order to retain CNBC's "premium" channel slot.^[7] However, it is important to note that FBN is on only Time Warner analog in New York; in other markets, digital cable is required.^[8] Verizon's FiOS TV, with 515,000 subscribers nationwide, also carries the network on its premier lineup (SD channel 117 and HD channel 617). Dish Network, which began carriage of FBN February 2, 2009, can be found on Channel 206. FBN can also be found on channel 359 on DIRECTV.

On May 12, 2008, Fox Business Network revamped its daytime lineup, which included the debut of two new programs, Countdown to the Closing Bell and Fox Business Bulls & Bears.

On April 20, 2009, Money for Breakfast, The Opening Bell on Fox Business (both hosted by Alexis Glick), The Noon Show with Tom Sullivan and Cheryl Casone, Countdown to the Closing Bell, Fox Business Bulls & Bears and Cavuto all moved to the network's new Studio G set. All six of those shows share the same set in Studio G, which was unveiled on Money for Breakfast the same day.

Fox Business Network HD

Fox Business Network HD is a 720p enhanced high definition simulcast of Fox Business Network. Programming shown on Fox Business Network HD is produced in high-definition, but is cropped to a 4:3 image and pushed to the left of the screen, with the extra room used for additional content, such as statistics and charts, and a wider ticker with more room. The side info is named "The Fox HD Wing". Competitor channel CNBC HD+ also uses the enhanced HD format, as well HD sports channels ESPNews HD and NFL Network HD.

Competition with other business and financial news channels

Studio F, the previous (now 'retail space available') studio for Fox Business Morning & Fox Business

Before the network premiered, there are a few specific facts were made public as to the type of programming approach Fox Business is taking. However, some details emerged as to how it differentiates itself from its main competitor, CNBC.

At a media summit hosted by BusinessWeek magazine, Rupert Murdoch was quoted as saying CNBC is too "negative towards business". They promise to make Fox Business more "business friendly".^[9] In addition, it is expected that Fox Business will not be "poaching" a lot of CNBC's on-air talent in the immediate future, as most key on-air personalities have been locked into a long-term contract. However, that still leaves open the possibility of the network taking some of CNBC's other staff, including editors, producers and other reporters.^[10] News Corporation, the parent corporation of Fox Business and Fox News channels, has made a successful bid for Dow Jones, owner of the Wall Street Journal. However, CNBC has stated on air that it has a contract with Dow Jones until 2012. One potential issue down the road is the fact that CNBC operates several news bureaus under the same roof as the Wall Street Journal.

Personalities

FBN's control room

David Asman, Cheryl Casone, Rebecca Diamond, Dagen McDowell, and Stuart Varney are anchors for Fox Business Network, although they will also keep their roles at Fox News. In addition, Brenda Buttner and Terry Keenan are also on the roster on FBN.^[11][12]

Other anchors named to the network include Peter Barnes, Tom Sullivan, Jenna Lee, Nicole Petallides and Cody Willard.^[13] Fox Business has also announced their first set of reporters; the list includes Jeff Flock (a CNN "original"), Shibani Joshi (from News 12 Westchester), and Connell McShane (from Bloomberg Television).^[14] The network also added former Hewlett Packard CEO Carly Fiorina ^[15] to the growing list of personalities, with Fiorina serving as a contributor to the network.^[16]

FBN's control room screen

Dave Ramsey announced on September 20, 2007 that he has signed on to have a one-hour prime time show, similar in format to his syndicated radio show.^[17] Tom Sullivan announced on October 2, 2007 that he has signed on to continue broadcasting his Tom Sullivan Show on the radio with plans to syndicate the show nationwide with the assistance of Fox News Radio. Adam Shapiro was added to the Fox Business Network to report from the Washington, DC Bureau. Shapiro was formerly at Cleveland's WEWS-TV and New York City's WNBC-TV. On October 18, 2007, former CNBC anchor Liz Claman joined the Fox Business Network at 2:00 PM EDT. She co-anchors the 2-3pm daypart of the Fox Business Network with David Asman. Her first assignment for Fox Business was an interview with Warren Buffett. Claman is reunited with her former CNBC worker Alexis Glick, both of whom worked at CNBC in the late 1990s into the early 2000s.

In April 2008, Brian Sullivan (no relation to Tom) joined the Fox Business Network, coming over from Bloomberg Television. Sullivan, who is reunited with his Bloomberg colleague, Connell McShane, now anchors the 10am-noon daypart with Dagen McDowell.

The network has at least twice been in negotiations with Don Imus to bring his morning show, Imus in the Morning, to Fox Business. The first attempt, in November 2007 (when Imus was just returning to radio, and Fox Business was just starting), fell through, and Imus instead signed with rural-oriented cable network RFD-TV. In September 2009, after Imus and RFD ended their agreement, Imus and FBN reached an agreement to carry the show, beginning October 5, 2009.^[18]

On December 23, 2009, Alexis Glick left FBN for unknown reasons.

Anchors/hosts

Reporters

These reporters are based in New York unless otherwise stated.

• Peter Barnes (Washington)
• Tracy Byrnes ¹
• Chris Cotter
• Dominic Di-Natale (London)
• Rich Edson (Washington)
• Jeff Flock (Chicago)
• Robert Gray
• Shibani Joshi
• Liz MacDonald ¹
• Louise Pennell (Los Angeles)
• Nicole Petallides
• Adam Shapiro
• Sandra Smith
• Ashley Webster (London) ¹

¹ = also acts as a substitute anchor/host

Contributors

• Scott Bleier
• Roni Deutch
• Carly Fiorina
• Diane Garnick
• Jonathan Hoenig
• John "Bradshaw" Layfield
• Charles Payne
• Gary B. Smith
• Tobin Smith
• Meredith Whitney

Former Personalities

• Alexis Glick (2007-2009), Money for Breakfast and The Opening Bell on Fox Business

Weekday Schedule

This is the regular schedule of Fox Business effective January 1, 2010^[19]. In many aspects the schedule of FBN is compared with the CNBC "Business Day" lineup.

Saturday Schedule

Sunday Schedule

Online

Ratings

On January 4, 2008, The New York Times, and several other media outlets that day, reported that FBN had registered an average of 6,300 viewers, far below Nielsen's 35,000-viewer threshold. The number was so low that neither Nielsen nor FBN were allowed to confirm the number.^[20] The Times and other media outlets noted the network is less than four months old and only in one-third as many households as is CNBC.

In July, 2008, Nielsen estimated that FBN averaged 8,000 viewers per daytime hour and 20,000 per prime time hour, compared to 284,000 and 191,000 (respectively) for CNBC. Because FBN's viewership remained low, Nielsen had difficulty estimating viewership, and the estimates are not statistically significant. At the time FBN was available in approximately 40 million homes to CNBC's over 90 million.^[21]

As of fall 2008, FBN was losing to CNBC in the ratings by over 10 to 1.^[22][23]

The latest numbers available, from June 2009, showed FBN with an average of 21,000 viewers between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m., still under the Nielsen threshold, and less than 10% of CNBC's 232,000 for the same time span. At this point, FBN was available in about 49 million U.S. homes.^[24]

Reports of ratings from the first episode of Imus in the Morning reported an average of 177,000 viewers (and a peak of 202,000 in the 7:00 a.m. hour) in the time slot, mostly over the age of 65; this was a more than tenfold increase compared to the network's previous morning show, Money for Breakfast. The program even beat CNBC's Squawk Box in the time slot, marking the first time the network has ever beaten, or even come close to, CNBC in the ratings.^[25]

Criticism

Fox Business has been criticized like CNBC^[26] for the number of infomercials it airs overnight and particularly on weekends.^[27][28] During events regarding the global financial crisis of 2008-2009 however, FBN has forgone informercials and aired overnight coverage from Australian sister network Sky News Business Channel and Sky News from the United Kingdom to provide coverage of the overseas reaction to the events.

International broadcasting

The channel is broadcast to Australia via the Sky News Business Channel.^[29][30] Other countries possible in the future include United Kingdom, although the channel's reports are aired on News Corp's Sky News in the UK^[31], Canada^[32] and Italy^[33], although negotiations are still on-going with cable and satellite companies.

On April 20, 2009, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approved Fox Business Network for distribution in Canada^[34]

The Fox 50

Fox Business has also put together an industrial index that is made up of, "the largest U.S. companies that make the products you know and use every day." ^[35] This index includes the following:

Originally, Anheuser-Busch and Merrill Lynch were included in the index, but both were acquired by other companies in 2008. They were replaced by Wells Fargo and HP. ^[36] This index is not available to purchase in the form of an Index Fund or ETF. The fund received criticism from some financial bloggers for putting together an index with so many competing brands, i.e., Google-Yahoo, FedEx-UPS, McDonalds-Yum! Brands, WalMart-Target-Costco, Apple-Dell-Microsoft, Coca-Cola-PepsiCo, and so on. ^[37]

References

External links

• FBN official website
• News & Information about FBN