Rupert Murdoch sketches financial media assault
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch sketched out his plans for the Fox Business Network on Friday, saying he will spend years nurturing the new channel to win over more than half of the business news audience.
The News Corp NWSa.N chairman and chief executive confirmed media reports that his media conglomerate intended to invest $150 million to $200 million over three years in FBN, including about $70 million in fiscal 2008.
Aiming to repeat the success of the Fox News Channel, which unseated CNN as the top cable news network four years after its launch, FBN is part of Murdoch's ambitions to build a global financial media powerhouse in print, the Internet and TV.
"I view FBN's growth in terms of years, not months," he told reporters following News Corp's annual shareholders meeting.
The 76-year-old mogul said he aimed to chip away at the competition -- the market leader for cable business news is CNBC -- while forging a broader audience beyond day traders and finance professionals.
"We'd like to take some of their viewers," he told reporters, referring to CNBC. "Our objective is to have more than half of it," he said, referring to business news viewers.
While some critics question whether there was room for a third cable business news channel after CNBC and Bloomberg TV, Murdoch pointed out that his investments pay off.
He said the company's $900 million investment in the Fox News Channel is expected to earn at least as much annually. Its value, he said, is to exceed $10 billion.
Longer term, News Corp aims to launch local versions of Fox Business in other countries. It's "somewhere down the road. We'll come to that," he said.
News Corp's more than $70 billion market capitalization slipped past Time Warner Inc (TWX.N) to steal the title of the world's largest media company for a brief moment this month. Its market value has slipped back down below Time Warner's this week, but Murdoch's ambition has not.
His recent $5 billion deal to buy The Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co Inc DJ.N is expected to bolster News Corp's coverage around the world and Murdoch repeated a commitment to invest in the newspaper and its Web properties.
"There's a real hunger, not just in the United States, but across the globe for financial news with the huge worldwide expansion and globalization of business," he said. "We are set to become the premier provider of the accurate and credible financial information they demand."
Murdoch said he expected to expand digital editions of the Wall Street Journal worldwide and launch new "vertical" sites around specific sectors of interest. He did not elaborate.
"Senior management has formulated a long term plan to integrate the unique properties of Dow Jones with our complementary assets and overall corporate and digital strategies," Murdoch said.
