FBN Lends More Credence to its Non-Business Perception

The Fox Business Network, the channel set up as a business spin off of Fox News to directly challenge CNBC has once again ditched business coverage in trading hours in favour of breaking news.  Quite why the chiefs at the channel think that this is a good idea, when Fox News - a news channel - is covering it adequately well is a bit of a hard one to fathom.  I honestly thought the whole idea of a business spin-off was to concentrate on covering, well, business news.  Inside Cable News have also looked at this in detail today following FBN's decision to abandon business news coverage in the last hour of trading in New York, and cover the 'balloon boy' story developing in Colorado.  Instead of trader talk and analysis, FBN viewers were treated to a screen-load of airborne hot air balloon action, and associated audio commentary.  I'll once again make the point that Fox News were showing exactly the same pictures, which equally - if not better - audio commentary.

What makes this worse, and Inside Cable News points this out well in their commentary, is that its not the first time Fox Business have done this, and it doesn't set a good precedent.  It is not like the FBN ticker/graphics/thing on the lower third of the screen is chock-full of realtime data that is actually of use to market watchers and traders either.  There is also the argument that Fox Business has dumped business programming in the mornings, when most people want business news.  Instead, its shock-jock Don Imus, which clearly is a move only to win ratings. 

Inside cable news writes;

Ok, everyone has been watching CNN, MSNBC, and FNC’s coverage of this runaway balloon story. Sounds reasonable right? News channels covering a news story. So what was FBN doing covering it? In the last hour of the market day when trading is going on FBN’s business viewers get to watch video of a hot air balloon flying across Colorado. I only bothered to check the network after the balloon landed just to make sure it was covering business news. It wasn’t. Brilliant. If CNBC did it too they deserve the same amount of scorn but I have not been able to verify yet that CNBC did or didn’t cover it.

Business networks are there to cover business news. What’s a flying balloon with a 6 year old boy supposedly inside got to do with NASDAQ? Or the Dow? Oil Futures? Are mylar producers going to take a hit if the boy was ever actually inside (which as of this writing we’re still not sure)? Is that your business tie in to this sensational live video pandering?

All the points made there are absolutely valid.  Fox Business really needs to get back on track and cover business news.  Infact, I'll go as far as to say that it actually needs to improve that coverage.  If FBN is now just after sensationalist coverage and ratings, it may aswell be re-branded as Fox News 2, or Fox News Extra...

Sadly, it looks like ratings and sensationalist coverage is exactly what the channel is after.  The Dow closed above 10,000 this week for the first time in over a year.  Fox Business has wheeled out its big guns to give interviews, and answer questions to all and sundry as you can see through our reporting today.  CNBC have offered up nobody.  Now that is not a slight on CNBC, infact quite the contrary.  It is CNBC's job and purpose to cover such events, and their presenters will give their views and opinions on the air.  Clearly its all about blog space, news space, any form of space that gives them even a bit of exposure, and above all, ratings.

A sad state of affairs I'm afraid for a business channel.  The final word comes from ICN and I echo it wholeheartedly, "Stick to what you're in business for..."

Read ICN's full article here.