While he didn’t share any of the specifics as to how, Neil Cavuto is confident that Fox Business Channel will expand the sector’s audience beyond that of his former employer, CNBC.
“We’re going to be entertaining, informative, youthful. We’re going to appeal to groups beyond old white guys with money,” the Fox News senior vice president and managing editor of business news said in an interview late Thursday afternoon, following the official announcement earlier that News Corp. would finally launch its much-discussed cable business channel in the fourth quarter.
Cavuto, noting, “If I say anything, my competitors are going to get a jump,” declined to discuss program specifics or daypart strategies.
He did say that nothing is expected to change relative to his five Fox News Channel business shows -- Bulls & Bears, Forbes on Fox, Cavuto on Business, Cashin In and Your World with Neil Cavuto -- which, he noted, rank at the top of the ratings for cable business news.
“The plan is for me to stay on [Fox News],” added Cavuto, who will be in charge of content and business news at the fledgling service. “We’re just beginning this and will take it day-by-day.”
Asked about talent and staffing, he said there are “a lot of great engaging personalities here and elsewhere. Things will evolve over time as they did with the five business shows.”
He added that there would be announcements about personnel and talent over the next few weeks and months.
For now, he is being joined at Fox Business Channel by Fox News executive VP Kevin Magee, who will have daily oversight of the service, and Alexis Glick, who will serve as director of business news and also have an on-air presence.
Cavuto looked to downplay expectations. “We realize that [CNBC] has a 20-year head start,” he said. “We didn’t become rock stars at Fox News overnight, and we won’t become rock stars overnight here, either.”
For its part, CNBC welcomed the challenge.
“Bring it on,” CNBC VP of media relations Kevin Goldman said. “We certainly welcome the competition if it ever shows up. We’re in the best position we’ve ever been in and we’re only getting stronger. We just wrapped up our best financial year ever, and our measured audience is surging. So that’s why I say: Bring it on.”
Fox Business Channel, headed by Roger Ailes, chairman and CEO of Fox News and chairman of Fox Television Studios, currently counts 30 million subscribers through carriage deals with such distributors as Comcast, Time Warner Cable, DirecTV and Charter Communications.
The network, which will be based out of News Corp.’s headquarters in Manhattan, is expected to launch in major markets around the country, including the nation’s financial capital, New York, where officials said it will be available on expanded-basic cable.
