Earlier this month, I linked to a report where Roger Ailes quashed talk of launching a FOX Business Channel.
But in a meeting with UBS analysts earlier this week, the FOX News Chairman reportedly said the all-business channel would get off the ground in early-to-mid 2007:
Mr. Ailes said he thinks there is room for both a TV and an Internet competitor to CNBC. He told the analysts the business channel's content will stand on its own and will not need to ride Fox News Channel's coattails to get cable coverage.
If a FOX Business Channel really is a go, I wonder if Rupert Murdoch will make a play for either Dow Jones or the Financial Times. Both have been the subject of takeover and sale speculation for several years.
Purchasing Dow Jones with its roster -- The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, Dow Jones Newswires and MarketWatch -- makes an especially nice content-provider to a business channel headquartered in the US. Though having the FT providing content would be more than acceptable.
Then again, this is television. It might be cheaper -- and more of a ratings winner -- for Murdoch to line up every blond bombshell working on Wall Street.
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