The Financial Times' Joshua Chaffin reports that Rupert Murdoch and Fox have secured cable rights for a possible Fox Business Channel on Time-Warner's cable system in New York City. This is BIG.
Those with long memories--back to the days when Time-Warner was the biggest media outfit around with such then-hot properties as CNN--might remember that back when Fox News was just getting going, one of the key issues was whether or not FNC could get cable "carriage" in the all-important NYC market. Ted Turner and T-W resisted Fox, but ultimately, Murdoch and Roger Ailes succeeded in getting FNC on cable. And the rest, as they say, is history.
So with that history in mind, it's interesting that Time-Warner struck this deal, to let yet another Murdoch channel come into full flower. Of course, CNN no longer has CNNFN to defend against a Fox Business Channel onslaught, because CNNFN died a couple of years ago. Now the immediate rivals are CNBC and Bloomberg--they should be nervous.
It looks like this FBC is going to happen, folks. It's going to be a big year in The Cable Game!
