Most misleading headline of the day…
…goes to this one by Henry Blodget on Silicon Alley Insider…
NBC’s Zucker: Fox Business News Irrelevant. CNBC Ratings Rock
I saw that and thought…oh what did Zucker say now that will come back to hurt CNBC? FBN is still dining on that “not concerned” public stance from before it launched. But I’m sure it wouldn’t turn down another free lunch if it were presented one.
It turns out however that the headline rather overstates things. Jeff Zucker was talking in very reserved fashion about any ratings impact to CNBC since FBN launched. He wasn’t antagonistic and didn’t even discuss the relevancy of CNBC’s competition. So I’m sort of at a loss to understand how Blodget gets from what Zucker actually said to “Fox Business News Irrelevent…”
One difference I see in the CNBC vs. FBN battle that’s different than the FNC vs. CNN fight is that even starting out, FNC was on the analog cable tier, available to basically every cable customer. FBN is mostly on the lower digital tier and is unavailable to 10s of millions of folks without cable boxes. That’s a significant disadvantage.
Comment by Bill G — February 4, 2008 @ 7:04 pm
“available to basically every cable customer”
Not on Time Warner. I have no idea when FNC showed up but my guess is in between 1998-1999.
Comment by Terance — February 4, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
Terance, Is FNC not on an analog tier for you?
Comment by Bill G — February 4, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
That’s what I meant, that analog channels are available to pretty much all cable customers, digital channels are not.
Comment by Bill G — February 4, 2008 @ 7:13 pm
^ Yes, and I fully agree its much better to get launched on an analog tier than digital at this point in time. But, my point remains, TWC didn’t carry FNC for a while on any tier.
Comment by Terance — February 4, 2008 @ 7:22 pm
I’ve been watching FBN since it started. I have to admit it is entertaining to watch, with useful information. They do tend to mix politcs more often than CNBC. It resembles FNC in many of their delivery methods of ‘news.’
But it is difficult for me to beleive that trading firms have this channel on instead of CNBC for ‘hard’ business news. I read a review on FNC’s sat. morning business block as
“Politics mixed with business news masked in a suit and tie.”
FBN will probably beat CNBC in ratings in the long run, but there will be very little substance to their ‘business news’ aspect compared to CNBC. It will blend politics and business. Actually, it is already doing that.
Bottomline, I like watching FBN, but I hope I don’t walk into my broker’s office and he is watching it.
Comment by Henry — February 4, 2008 @ 8:26 pm
Terance: We still don’t know how the cable systems are going to shuffle their packages come 2/17/09 when they have to be all digital. A good guess is that the channels that are now analog will still be offered as a basic package separately from what is now available on digital tiers for extra cost.
Make any sense?
Comment by ira — February 4, 2008 @ 8:41 pm
Sure Ira, most likely they’ll continue to have a basic, standard, and extended package for different price ranges.
Comment by Terance — February 4, 2008 @ 8:49 pm
Broadcast has to go digital. Cable is privately owned and can work on their own timetable.
Comment by Jim — February 4, 2008 @ 9:21 pm
Jim: Cable, which wants the additional bandwidth that anlaog channels consume, is also commited to digital.
Comment by ira — February 4, 2008 @ 11:12 pm
NEWS CORP……Does that meant anything to Henry????? Come on FBN Fox Business News will have more tenacles than an octopus for NEWS and especially Business. Wake up…..you sound like a Ron Paul supporter….asleep.
Comment by WHAT????????? — February 5, 2008 @ 9:22 am