This article talking about the Fox Business Network was timely to me, as I was just thinking about not hearing too much about them since they launched.
While there was a huge push upfront, and a lot of media interest, since the launch it's taken second seat to political interests in the run to the U.S. presidency, along with not much of a marketing campaign once the launch was over.
According to figures allegedly leaked by the media, so far the business channel is only garnering an average of 6,000 viewers in the daytime hours, with prime-time hours drawing about 15,000 on average. Fox (NWS) has said the leaked Nielsen numbers are accurate.
Responding to the data, Fox's executive vice-president, Kevin Magee, said in the Washington Post that "This is the way you build a network. You get on the air, build your shows and hope the audience finds you. It's still incredibly early."
CNBC (GE) continues to hold their share, averaging 283,000 a day.
I'm not sure this is really a problem, as anyone that understands Rupert Murdoch's way of building things, is that he takes the long-term view of the situation.
Having said that, it has surprised me that the channel has been mentioned very little in the media, as far as direct promotions from News Corp.
Another factor in the mix is a number of industry watchers say that a lot of cable packages have it way down on the channel line-up, making it harder for people to stumble across in their surfing.
Of course News Corp. is heavily leveraged, and the pumping of $200 million into the launch in October makes it unlikely that they'll overly spend in the short term.
But if the numbers continue to lag at the level they are, it will eventually force the company's hand, as media coverage of a performance like this over a period of time could potentially do a lot of harm to the channel.
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