Few Viewers for Infancy of Fox Business

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/04/business/media/04fox.html?ref=media


How many people are watching the new Fox Business Network?

About 6,300, on average, on any given weekday, according to early estimates compiled by Nielsen Media Research. By contrast, Fox Business’s chief competitor, CNBC, attracted about 283,000 viewers each weekday from Oct. 15 through Dec. 14, the first two months that Fox Business was on the air, according to Nielsen’s calculations.

While Nielsen, at the network’s request, has measured the viewership of Fox Business since its premiere, Nielsen is not permitted to release or even confirm those figures publicly. That is because they are so low as to fall below Nielsen’s minimum standards for reporting, said Gary Holmes, a Nielsen spokesman.

Both Fox and CNBC, however, have purchased versions of those weekly ratings reports from Nielsen, and a person who saw those internal reports vouched for their contents on Thursday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Mr. Holmes did confirm that Fox Business would have to reach a minimum threshold of 35,000 viewers — representing a tenth of a ratings point — before it could disclose the network’s audience publicly.

On the one hand, the low ratings for Fox Business during its first two months — a period in which it attracted ratings lower than most local television stations, let alone cable networks — are not surprising, given its upstart status. And while CNBC is available in about 90 million homes, Fox Business is thus far available in about 30 million.

But few new channels have been able to draw on the vast promotional resources that are at the disposal of Fox Business, which is part of the News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch’s $70 billion global media empire. (CNBC is a unit of NBC Universal, which is a part of General Electric.)

In an advertising campaign that has sprawled across television screens, billboards and magazine pages, the News Corporation has sought to hitch the fortunes of Fox Business directly to Fox News Channel, which draws millions of viewers a day. Roger Ailes, the chairman of Fox Business, holds the same title at Fox News, and Neil Cavuto, a star anchor of Fox Business, was already a star on Fox News.

Spurred by Mr. Ailes, who has said he would not settle for “anything short of a revolution,” Fox Business has squared off against CNBC with characteristic bravado. On its first day, a Fox correspondent stood outside CNBC headquarters in suburban New Jersey to declare that it was “hunting season.”

Thus far, at least, CNBC would seem to have easily eluded Fox’s cross hairs. Reached Thursday, a CNBC spokesman, Brian Steel, declined comment.

A spokeswoman for Fox Business, Irena Briganti, did not answer phone and e-mail messages Thursday seeking comment.

To be sure, the Nielsen estimates are just that — estimates. Nielsen calculates a network’s overall viewership based on a sampling of about 13,000 households nationally. To arrive at the 6,300 average viewership for Fox Business, Nielsen would have detected only a handful of viewers in those Nielsen households.

The channel’s viewership, however low, remained relatively stable over that period. The Nielsen figures estimated that Fox Business reached a high of about 9,000 viewers during the week of Dec. 10, the last for which figures were available, and a low of 4,000 during the week of Oct. 29.

All of the figures are averages from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Eastern time weekdays. (Moreover, ratings for Fox and CNBC do not reflect viewership in the workplace, which are important for channels aimed at a business audience.)

A comparison of the start of Fox Business Network with that of Fox News (which began in 1996) and CNBC (1989) is complicated because those networks — in contrast to Fox Business — did not ask Nielsen to measure their viewership during their start-up months.

 

I'm always interested in those who are "competing for my business." So, I thought I'd tune into Fox and see if they offered more than CNBC. At the time, it wasn't available in my city, which is one of the 5 largest in the country. How could they not offer it in one of the biggest markets? Doesn't have the feel of a winner, even though I'd like to try it.

 

Is this channel even available on Comcast cable? I haven't seen it yet.

 

Granted I like Bloomberg and to a lesser extent, certain aspects of CNBC.....that said, I think I've seen 30 mins of FBN since it went live. I'm not impressed --- at the very least, their ticker is utterly useless. Want to see how the general market is trending in terms of volume and price? CNBC you can see if something's really moving because the symbol keeps scrolling by....FNC it's a flip-card and IMO the quotes are more delayed than the stuff on free websites given how long it takes to cycle through their "Fox 50" or whatever it is.

I can't imagine anyone other than the "casual" stay-at-home mom/dad with a passing interest in business watching FBN. IMO it has more of a low-key, non-threatening Oprah feel to it...maybe that's who Fox is going for demo-wise.

 

It's that damn Cody, I tell you. It's his fault!

Check out this Fox poll:

http://www.radaronline.com/quiz/2007/10/fox_news_anchor_or_porn_star.php

 

I think the problem may have been the business plan. The CNBC pie is not a very big piece of pie to start with. 300k viewers does not seem like a lot to fight over even though the advertising revenue may be worth fighting over because of the demographics of the viewers. I think Fox thought that they could grow the total audience which may have been kind of foolish in the internet era. The demographics of CNBC would tell you they are a pretty savvy audience. Talking heads may be going the way of the dodo bird in the new millennium, and what I have seen from FBC is talking heads who are smugger and less knowledgeable than the ones on CNBC if that is possible. I would be interested to know if the few viewers that FBC does have were cannibalized from the Fox News Channel. I watch CNBC while I am trading. I just do not turn on the sound too often and choose to listen to classical music while I am monitoring my trading screens. I will always turn on the sound when Art Cashin and Rick Santelli are on screen. Sometimes I turn on the sound for Bob Pisani. Ron Insana holds my interest. I never listen to Kudlow or Kramer. Dylan Rattigan and the crew from Fast Money are gaining some of my interest and I take them lukewarmly. I have watched an hour or two of FBC since it has been on and it left me wanting. If Fox Business Channel needs a significant number of current CNBC viewers to migrate to them to become profitable, they have a long ways to go and with their level of viewership they must be burning significant money.

 

Fox Business Network can bypass Cable Operators obstacles if they offer live streaming video over the internet.

CNBC has a subscription service call CNBC Plus where subscribers receive live video over the internet. FBN can also use this approach if they have good content.

 

The need hot babes like on their news show.

Then we can watch with the volume off.

 

Liz Claman is the Hottest MILF in business news.
I think that she had a crush on eric bolling.

This woman is HOT!..



BTW: FBN sucks!