Today, the legendary Harlem Globetrotters brought their basketball skills and wizardry to the floor of the NYSE. In the final minutes of trading, FBN’s Tracy Byrnes played ball with the team while traders smile in the background…

Today on FBN, David Asman and Liz Claman interviewed Michael Winship, President of the Writers Guild of America, East, and Patric Verrone, President of the Writers Guild of America, West, regarding the deal that was recently agreed upon by the WGA and the conglomerates. Transcript highlights follow…

Winship on the 17-day window agreement stated in the contract:

“We would have liked to have closed that window completely. That is one of the things we did not achieve in this contract and something we will be working on going forward. The important thing is that we got jurisdiction in new media, we got jurisdiction in the Internet and we got a percentage of the distributors’ gross. These were our major goals and we achieved those.”

Winship on whether the networks will air programs after 17 days that would require them to pay writers:
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average will be making its first change to the average in four years. It was announced today that the DJIA will be dropping Honeywell and Altria from the index and adding Chevron and Bank of America. FBN broke the news of this at 9:05:18 am ET with Alexis Glick reporting the story. Glick brought in the Managing Editor of the Wall Street Journal, Marcus Brauchli to discuss the story.

CNBC broke the news at virtually the same time (9:05:25 am) during Squawk on the Street with Mark Haines and Erin Burnett, who interviewed John Prestbo, Dow Jones’ Indexes Editor & Executive Director a minute after they reported it.

Neil Cavuto’s Ann Coulter interview yesterday got some press. The Boston Globe’s Foon Rhee blogs about the interview…

Thursday night on Fox Business Network, Coulter suggested she might hold her nose and support McCain if he picked Romney as his running mate.

“I thought it was very gentlemanly for Mitt Romney to pull out right before McCain spoke at CPAC. It occurred to me then that if McCain weren’t a dunce, what he would do is take Mitt Romney as his vice president. That is the only way I think you could get me to vote for him. That’s my final offer.

Host Neil Cavuto made sure he heard right. “Still not very comfortable with the man at the top of the ticket. But the man at the top of the ticket said himself he doesn’t know much about economics. Maybe Mitt Romney could help with that. And moreover, it would put Mitt Romney in the lead for 2012, which he says he will be looking at again,” Coulter replied.

As did USA Today’s Mark Memmott

Neil Cavuto of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network was smack in the middle of the latest brouhaha involving Ann Coulter again yesterday.
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The Swamp’s Mark Silva writes about what Ann Coulter said last night on FBN’s Cavuto regarding John McCain…

Tonight, on Cavuto’s show, Coulter made a new offer: “If McCain weren’t a dunce, what he would do is take Mitt Romney as his vice president,'’ she said on FOX. “That’s the only way, I think, you could get me to vote for him and that’s my final offer.”

FBN’s Neil Cavuto, live from Pebble Beach, CA where the AT&T National Pro-Am golf tournament is underway, will interview actor Clint Eastwood. The interview will air on FNC’s Your World with Neil Cavuto (4-5pm ET) and on FBN’s Cavuto (6-7pm ET).

Talking Biz News blogs about FBN exclusives causing the market to move today…

Fox Business anchor Liz Claman secured another market-moving exclusive with Warren Buffett at 2:22 p.m. ET with Buffett speaking on the phone to Claman about rumors swirling that he would do a deal with bond insurers.

Stock prices for MBIA and AMBAC moved off their highs after the Fox Business exclusive, in which Buffett said, “We could have some kind of insurance transaction with them but we will not be investing in them or any other bond insurer. We’ve got our ‘own’ bond insurer…Berkshire Hathaway Assurance is already up and running in New York state and has already done a couple of deals.”

FOX Business Network’s Alexis Glick interviewed Steve Tisch and Steve Mara, co-owners of the New York Giants at the New York Stock Exchange this morning on “Opening Bell.”

Tisch said, “I think [the win] is going to increase the value of the team financially…by how much I can’t tell you. But in the terms of the emotion, the fan support, potential sponsorship opportunities and partnership opportunities, it’s immeasurable.” He also said about Sunday’s game, “This could not have been scripted. This was live drama. Talk about the greatest reality TV show ever – you watched it Sunday night.”

Glick blogged about her Super Bowl experience here…

…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…”

FNC/FBN anchor Neil Cavuto will be part of the pre-game coverage for FOX Super Sunday, with a segment airing at 3:55 PM/EST on your local FOX broadcast station.

Cavuto will interview real estate tycoon Donald Trump and former GE Chairman Jack Welch on the business and economics of Sunday’s game – from expensive game tickets and big-budget commercials, to record sales of half-time performers, big-screen TV purchases, game merchandise and parties.

Tim Armstrong, President of North American Advertising and Sales for Google, gave FBN’s Peter Barnes his company’s first reaction to the potential deal between Microsoft and Yahoo. Armstrong said:

“I think we compete against both of those companies. We also partner with both of those companies so we’re as interested as anyone in what the outcome will be.”

When asked if Google is nervous about the potential deal, Armstrong said, “I don’t think so. We had our quarterly results last night. We feel the Internet is a big, healthy environment for us and I think we feel confident in our business and the decisions we’re making. We’re more nervous about making sure we stay focused ourselves.”

Tomorrow, FOX Business Network’s “Happy Hour” crew is taking their show on the road. FBN anchors Cody Willard and Rebecca Gomez will be hosting a pre-Super Bowl “Happy Hour” from Glendale, Arizona. Rebecca Gomez just left, halfway through today’s show, to catch her flight to Arizona.

The guest line-up for tomorrow’s “Happy Hour” include Steve Tisch, co-owner of the Giants; Rande Gerber, nightclub owner, Cindy Crawford’s husband and host of this weekend’s MAXIM party; Bob Parsons, CEO of GoDaddy.com and Brian Griese, quarterback for the Chicago Bears.

Additionally, FBN’s “Money for Breakfast” and “Opening Bell” anchor Alexis Glick will continue her coverage from Arizona, featuring interviews tomorrow with Phil Simms, Super Bowl XXI MVP and Steve Tisch, chairman, executive vice president, and co-owner of the New York Giants, among others.

Alexis Glick will also ring the closing bell of the New York Stock Exchange from Arizona tomorrow.

FOX Business Network’s Alexis Glick was live from Glendale, AZ this morning interviewing business and sports celebrities before Sunday’s Super Bowl.

“Money for Breakfast” featured Phillippi Sparks, former Giants player and father of Idol winner Jordin Sparks; Tony Dorsett, former player for the Dallas Cowboys and the Denver Broncos; and Robert Kraft, owner of the New England Patriots.

Kraft told Alexis, “I feel I have great karma with the whole FOX family.” He mentioned, “This game has the potential to be the largest rated show in the history of television and I hope we do that.”

Silicon Alley Insider’s Michael Learmonth writes about FBN Executive Vice President Kevin Magee’s comments on the WSJ/CNBC deal and the “loopholes” therein…

Magee, speaking at the Always On conference yesterday, didn’t go into details about FBN’s plans to use WSJ staff. But he did lay out his case: “There are some restrictions. We can’t just go ahead and use anything. I believe the restrictions involve regularly-scheduled, branded segments. There is a carve-out for non-business news and there is a carve-out for breaking news.”

If this should sound familiar to ICN readers it’s because this was already chronicled back in January when Magee gave an interview to the Boston Globe and said pretty much the same thing…

FBN will have special coverage today regarding an announcement from the Federal Reserve…

Today, FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto will join Davis Asman and Liz Claman in the 2pm ET hour of FOX Business to discuss what Americans can expect from this afternoon’s Fed announcement. Cavuto and an all-star panel of Fed experts and business leaders will remain throughout most of the hour to provide post-announcement analysis.

Having your competition on the air behind you while you’re giving an interview. It’s a little blurry from this sub par grab but that’s Stuart Varney behind Dennis Kneale…
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FBN’s coverage plans for the 2008 SOTU…

FOX Business Network (FBN) will provide live coverage of President Bush’s State of the Union address and the Democratic response on Monday, January 28th 9PM-11PM/ET. Foxbusiness.com will also be live streaming the speech.

Anchored by Neil Cavuto, programming will include post-address analysis from: FBN contributor Carly Fiorina; FOX News Channel contributor and former Tennessee Democratic congressman Harold Ford, Jr.; Senator John Ensign (R-NV) and Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan who will all put the speech into economic perspective. The audience will also be able to track how the futures markets and oil and gold fare during the speech.

Multichannel News’ Linda Hogstead writes about a new study from Beta Research Corp.

Outdoor Channel and Fox Business Network are the top emerging networks that operators most want to carry, while DIY Network and Lifetime Movie Network rank as the leading mid-sized networks, according to the latest study from Beta Research Corp.

In a nationally representative survey of 130 operators, 83% expressed interest in carrying Outdoor Channel by the end of 2008. Second-place finisher Fox Business Network scored 72%, followed by PBS Kids Sprout (69%); ESPNU (67%); Hallmark Movie Channel (66%); CSTV (55%), Nickelodeon Digital Networks (54%); Fox Movie Channel (53%); VH1 Digital Networks (45%) and Lifetime Real Women (44%).

Neil Cavuto appeared on Don Imus’ program this morning to talk about about the economy and the market news from yesterday.

FOX Business Network’s Alexis Glick reports live today from Davos, Switzerland at the 2008 World Economic Forum for FBN’s Money for Breakfast, Opening Bell and throughout the day on FOX Business.

This morning, Glick sat down with former US Treasury Secretary John Snow and Richard Edelman, President and CEO of the global PR firm, Edelman. Glick will also interview the incoming Coke CEO, Muhtar Kent, Activision’s CEO, Bobby Kotick and Lehman Brothers Vice Chairman, Tom Russo.

Today also marks the first official day of Glick’s new blog, The Glick Report, which will provide a behind-the-scenes look at the world’s largest and most influential economic forum and insight into what’s top of mind for some of the world’s most powerful business leaders. Read more at http://glickreport.blogs.foxbusiness.com/

Jenna Lee of FOX Business Network and Courtney Friel of Fox News Channel lead a spinning class last Friday for the New York Sports Clubs and Snapple’s “Saints & Spinners” charity event.

The event was a 24-hour spin-a-thon at Grand Central Terminal in New York, and Jenna and Courtney led the 4:00 PM Friday class.

TV Decoder’s Brian Stelter blogs about the focus on business news today and the networks that cover it…

The market turmoil will be viewed as the first serious test for Fox Business. One year ago Rupert Murdoch had pledged that the network would be “more business friendly than CNBC.” The channel was introduced amid a market downturn in October.

On Monday, while United States markets were closed for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and overseas markets posted losses, Fox Business presented live programming while CNBC aired repeats. Curiously, CNBC chose not to simulcast the live coverage from its Asian or European sister networks. “[We were] the only business network that was open for business today,” a Fox host pointedly remarked during the 5 p.m. show “Happy Hour.”

Despite being dark on Monday, CNBC says it has an advantage in its nearly 20 years of experience. “This is not the first time we’ve had a market selloff,” the CNBC anchor Melissa Francis said Tuesday morning. “We’ve been through this before, we’ll get you through it again.”

MediaPost notes that Mediaweek notes (down at the bottom of article) that Bob Flood has joined FNC/FBN as the VP of integrated sales and insights…

Update: Multichannel News has more…

In his new post, Flood is responsible for selling the networks’ TV and digital assets to new and existing advertisers. He will also oversee FBN’s partnership with Dow Jones and their advertising vehicles.

As does The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough…
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The Hollywood Reporter’s Paul J. Gough writes about what happened in business news yesterday on Martin Luther King Day…

It was a huge story for some of the news networks, including Fox Business Network, CNN and Fox News Channel. FBN had the most extensive live coverage. CNBC, following long-standing tradition when the U.S. markets are shut, ran only taped programming. It didn’t take the day off completely, however: CNBC on-air reporters were a part of NBC’s coverage on “Today” and “NBC Nightly News.”

All of the networks were preparing for a big news day Tuesday, when the Asian and European markets would have another go and the U.S. exchanges would be back from the three-day weekend.

Although CNBC ran taped programming throughout the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, it offered coverage of the markets online.

“The U.S. markets are closed, and just as the Wall Street Journal isn’t publishing today, we have focused all of our editorial energy online and tomorrow when the U.S. markets are live,” CNBC senior vp Jonathan Wald said Monday.

Update: Variety’s Sam Theilman writes about FBN yesterday…
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Today is Martin Luther King Day and the US Markets are closed. However the world markets aren’t and they’ve been reeling from fears over the U.S. economy. Because of the holiday, CNBC U.S. was running tape today. Even Bloomberg went to tape after 11 am ET. However FBN has been live covering the international plunge all day.

Yes, it’s a U.S. holiday and U.S. markets are closed. Also CNBC World has been live covering the story (if you have CNBC World that is, and not many do) and CNBC Asia will be streamed on CNBC.com later today. But CNBC U.S. will now end up looking like it was caught napping today compared to its upstart competition, even though the potential audience for this story would have been paltry. Even though from a profit/loss standpoint it doesn’t make sense to be live today for CNBC with the U.S Markets closed, from a perception standpoint, it looks bad to be dark when a story like this breaks. And I would expect FBN to milk this for all it’s worth.

On the other hand if nothing had happened internationally today, nobody would be questioning CNBC being dark. But again, there was the CNBC World option. CNN will turn over to CNNI overnight if there’s breaking news so I don’t understand why that’s not an option for CNBC.

Update: Silicon Alley Insider’s Henry Blodget opines…

Tonight, FBN will present a special edition of America’s Nightly Scoreboard, “How to Stay Up in a Down Market,” at 7pm ET.

Host David Asman along with a group of mortgage brokers, financials experts, journalists and political strategists will discuss what Washington and the Presidential candidates are doing to stimulate the economy, how homeowners and renters can take advantage of the current housing downturn and how to boost your financial portfolio in such a volatile market. Personal finance expert and host of The Dave Ramsey Show on FOX Business Network will discuss ways in which Americans can not only survive during this period of economic downturn but also how they can make money, save money and thrive during what many fear is becoming a recession.

1440 Wall Street blogs about CNBC’s Jim Cramer and the Bolling bet, ratings, and business network spats…

The media sniping is not likely to end, at least until Fox Business and Cramer get their ratings up. Although Fox’s issues are well known, they will get a free pass for a few more months. Cramer’s Mad Money has issues, however. The show is certainly amusing, but the ratings are suffering given how thin Cramer is spreading himself. Just this week, he ‘s been on the Today Show, Imus and The Apprentice.

The question is why? If he’s so popular why are the ratings so soft? CNBC’s Mad Money is scratching in the core demo. Wednesday night, only 45,000 people between the ages of 25-54 were watching Cramer at 6pm (he had nearly 200,000 viewers) . A scratch is defined as not meeting minimum reporting standards for Nielsen; CNBC program’s will scratch below 51,000. If you need to get his picks and pans you don’t have to watch the show, just punch up one of the many websites that chronicle his recommendations.

But the media battle is as interesting as any battleground in a stock, and Cramer’s soundbites are priceless.

The New York Post’s Zachery Kouwe writes about the bet Jim Cramer lost to Eric Bolling…

Investors who took Cramer’s advice would have taken a 30 percent hit to their portfolios as the stocks of financial titans such as Citigroup and Merrill Lynch got hammered by the mortgage crisis.

On the other hand, investors savvy enough to follow Bolling’s bet on gold and oil would have hit the jackpot, as the hot commodities jumped over 60 percent in the same period.

Cramer, through a spokesman, blamed his loss on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s failure to cut interest rates more aggressively.

“The bet turned on Jim Cramer emphatically calling for the Fed to ease rates. The Fed didn’t follow Jim’s advice, and as a result he’ll be happy

Following up on this from earlier this morning, FBN executives were laughing at Ratigan’s comments today and asked, “Doesn’t he need ratings first in order to ‘destroy’ FBN?”

Below is ratings chart provided by FBN which shows that Fast Money is pulling in a lower Demo number than Kudlow & Company, the previous holder of that time slot, did last year. It also shows Fast Money losing its lead-in from Closing Bell.

Update: A CNBC Spokesperson responds, “‘Fast Money’ is the fastest growing program in cable news. It was up 67% in the demo of adults 25-54 and up 43% in total viewers in 2007. And we’re excited for an even better 2008 with Dylan Ratigan and the ‘Fast Money’.”
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Wall Street Fighter beats up on CNBC for being press release happy…

In addition to CNBC’s weak attempt at getting their name out there by inundating industry blogs with a bevy of press releases. Some of these have been so ridiculous that journalists are starting to mock them. Just yesterday, they announced that they slapped the name CNBC Edge on relatively routine daytime market coverage and went so far as to send out a press release when oil hit $100 a barrel! They’ve now taken to ringing the NASDAQ bell for one year anniversaries of their programs. Gee, I guess they got that from FBN too, who rang the bell the day they launched and ending up getting on CNBC’s air to boot…

Hillary Clinton will appear on FBN today at 12:20pm ET when she’ll be interviewed by Stuart Varney and Dagen McDowell. Clinton’s economic advisor Roger Altman appeared on FBN’s “Money for Breakfast” this morning and talked to Alexis Glick about how to fund Clinton’s stimulus package.

“Here’s to destroying…well, ‘destroying Fox’ is what I was going to say, to be totally honest about it. And I was going to say something even more profane than that except there’s press in the room.”

-Fast Money’s Dylan Ratigan last night at the Fast Money one year anniversary party. Guess what’s going up on the FBN Bulletin board this morning? Go on, guess… (via Jeff Bercovici at Portfolio)

FBN’s Jeff Flock is at the Detroit Auto Show this week and is providing live updates every hour on FBN. Earlier Flock interviewed General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner that featured Wagoner walking around the show floor and commenting by the hybrid version of the Malibu, the Chevy Equinox fuel cell vehicle, and the new Hummer concept car HX.

Gee, I wonder what prompted this…

The Boston Herald’s Greg Gatlin talks with FBN’s Kevin Magee in conjunction with FBN coming to Comcast in Boston. And do note the part about the Wall Street Journal.

“We’re just rolling out,” he said. “We’re 11 weeks old.”

Fox Business Network aims to appeal to a wider swath of viewers by demystifying business news. Magee says it’s resisting the urge to speak in business jargon.

“When we’re on our game and doing it the way we should, we are more easy to understand,” he said. “We think everybody is interested in making money, or perhaps more importantly these days, not losing money.”

Wall Street Journal reporters appear on rival CNBC under a pact that runs through 2012. While that’s expected to limit Journal reporters’ appearances on Fox Business, Magee points out that the deal does not cover breaking news and non-business news. “If there’s a breaking news story, we can put them on,” he said.

Update: Magee also spoke with Nicole C. Wong of The Boston Globe…
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