Bloomberg Television Continues to Evolve

Following Bloomberg's acquisition of BusinessWeek, Mediaite's Steve Krakauer takes a look at how Bloomberg Television is evolving.  The channel, which has recently debuted a new, modern on-screen look, positioning it closer in terms of perception to its competition, is continuing its agressive modernisation.  It is featuring more 'known' presenters and talent on air, as well as seasoned professionals off screen.  Betty Liu and Margaret Brennan both feature on air now, both having on air experience at CNBC prior to joining Bloomberg.

Krakauer writes;

While the resources are widespread around the world, the American channel’s success is largely an unknown. Like Fox Business Network, Bloomberg TV is not a full service client from Nielsen, and so does not report ratings (and the leaks are tight as well). This makes it difficult to see where Bloomberg TV lies in the broader cable news landscape – and to see how it will improve with the recent changes.

It’s a given that Bloomberg TV doesn’t have anywhere near the ratings of CNBC, and is more likely on par with FBN (since each are not publicly rated). But the one area of distinction between the two networks is Bloomberg’s appeal overseas, which the young News Corp. biz net has not had the chance to compete with yet. The international viewers mean the success of the U.S. version of Bloomberg TV is only a small part of the company’s success, and even further, the success of Bloomberg as a whole. There is less riding on an immediate bump in the ratings (which could come from an Imus-like move), and there’s more time for Rhodes and his team to develop into a harder, more business-focused, alternative.

Read the full article here.