Welcome to The Cable Game 1440 Wall Street!
The Cable Gamer has always been amused that the various NBC Cable Game properties--MSNBC, CNBC, and NBC itself--have made such a hash out of their websites. Remember when MSNBC was going to "converge" the worlds of TV and the Net? That didn't happen, and recently, Newsweek magazine dropped out of its partnership with MSNBC. And CNBC and NBC reinvent their websites every few years. They certainly have the deep pockets--thanks to long-suffering GE prexy Jeff Immelt and his shareholders--but they never seem to be able to make it work.
A case in point is this item from 1440 Wall--excerpted here:
The launch of Fox Business Network has not gotten off glitch free, but considering the enormity of the task, so far, so good. We were expecting more in the way of problems. And we would expect Roger Ailes to begin tinkering with his lineup soon, which means the channel and its personalities will begin to gel.
It is no surprise CNBC biased contributors have taken their fair share of potshots at Fox; franchise player Jim Cramer was even vowing to "wipe the floor" with them at a recent book signing. But CNBC is getting its arse kicked by Fox in one important area....the internet. And with several properties to play around with, pundits are speculating on Murdoch's ultimate web strategy:
Many predict Murdoch also has plans for Dow Jones' MarketWatch. Kramer believes it's the perfect property to kick start FoxBusiness.com, which has surprised many rivals by exceeding 2.1 million unique users in its first month (versus the 821,000 uniques at CNBC.com, relaunched a year ago). Expectations were low for the site due to Fox News' lackluster foray into the Web. Observers have also slammed its design. But the site's managing editor, Ray Hennessey, said FoxBusiness.com has an advantage FoxNews.com did not: It was built in conjunction with the channel. "Where things have gone wrong is there is an absolute disconnect between Web and TV presence," he said. "We did it [right]. We're not an afterthought."
Hennessey sees no indication the site will be melded in some fashion with MarketWatch or WSJ.com, believing News Corp. is stronger with multiple assets.
Fox Business Network is working to get wider distribution on cable operators nationwide; they have approximately 35% to 40% of the CNBC's distribution. It is possible consumers who can't get FBN on their TV are hitting up Fox on the net, but it would not entirely explain the difference in unique users. And Fox might even pad their lead as new cable subscribers are added in the years ahead. Web measurement is notoriously inaccurate, but this is an ass kicking so far. Lace up the boxing gloves, two media heavyweights are going toe to toe. But the battle for the internet looks like it is game over, and we are not even out of the first round.
