Fox Business News Floundering

[Toro]

Fox Business News is not doing anywhere near as well as its competitor.

Fox Business, launched in October 2007, was supposed to air content substantially different enough from rival CNBC to take some of the larger channel’s viewers or, at least, build a viewership of its own.

In early and mid-2008, first Reuters and then The Washington Post each published estimates of the Fox Business viewership. Reuters put it at “an estimated 6,000 average weekday viewers.”

The Post also offered fairly detailed numbers writing “For the first three weeks of July, according to Nielsen figures obtained yesterday that have not been publicly released, Fox Business Network is averaging just 8,000 viewers during daytime hours, and 20,000 in prime time.”

Based on 24/7 Wall St. conversations with people with knowledge about recent Fox Business viewership figures, including one former executive with the network, audience numbers have hardly budged in since The Post article eleven months ago. Average hourly viewership runs between 2,000 and 8,000 during most hours from 6 AM to 6 PM. The network’s most watched prime-time shows rarely pull more than 15,000 viewers per hour.

Fox Business Still Taking On Water – 24/7 Wall Street