It was Roger Ailes who came up with the slogan "First in Business News" for CNBC when he was running the channel. Now, he's determined to knock it into second place.
Ailes is a key architect of News Corp.'s new Fox Business Network. The channel, which is scheduled to launch Oct. 15, helped drive media mogul Rupert Murdoch's pursuit of Dow Jones & Co. News Corp. won its $5-billion bid for the company, which owns the Wall Street Journal, this week.
But executives at NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., say that CNBC is not about to cede any ground.
"We take all competition seriously," Mark Hoffman, president of CNBC, said in an interview Wednesday. "We are going to work hard to make sure that we continue to do what we have done historically. We want to be fast and accurate with the information . . . and we are going to be unbiased."
That could be interpreted as a not-so subtle shot at Fox News, which some have accused of incorporating right-wing politics into its coverage. They say Ailes, who built the channel, has infused it with the conservative views of his boss, Murdoch. Ailes ran CNBC from 1993 to 1996.
Fox News executives declined to comment.
Andrew Tyndall, who publishes an online report that analyzes television news, said accuracy could play a role in the skirmish over TV dominance.
"There is really a premium in getting accurate information to investors who are trading on that information," said Tyndall. "There is no other sector that overvalues accuracy as much, and undervalues opinion."
Tyndall questioned whether the TV market for financial news was big enough for two titans. "I'm not so sure that there is an audience that is not being served by CNBC," he said. "The niche isn't that big."
Murdoch -- the 76-year-old billionaire who has built his empire by preying on established media entities that he feels are vulnerable -- is betting that it is.
For years, CNBC has used its near-monopoly in the industry to become one of the jewels of NBC Universal. Last year, the channel brought in nearly $530 million in revenue and about $350 million in profit, according to two people with knowledge of the operation's finances.
Although others have tried to challenge CNBC, none has come close to matching its strength. There was CNNfn, which Time Warner Inc. launched as more of a consumer-focused business channel, but that folded in 2004. And Bloomberg, a supplier of financial data to large investors, has not been a serious threat.
