Fox Business Network is a flop -- for now.

The News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)-owned cable channel is averaging just 8,000 viewers during the day and 20,000 during prime time, well under the 284,000 viewers who watch CNBC during the day and 191,000 who watch the General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) network during prime time, according to The Washington Post.

Basically, Fox could attract as big of an audience yelling the news through a megaphone in the middle of New York City's Time Square. The poor performance is not a shock. CNBC has a huge advantage in terms of brand recognition and getting people to change their media habits is difficult even under the best of circumstances. Moreover, during periods of economic uncertainty people want to stick with tried and true sources of information rather than something new.

By the way, I am rooting for Fox to succeed. CNBC could use a kick in the pants. The network is so full of itself sometimes that it's painful to watch. Fox, though, has yet to knock CNBC off its high horse.

CNBC star Maria Bartiromo and I share a birthday, and I love a good scandal, so I follow her religiously. Maria is fun because she's both gorgeous and cute, smart and sexy. And then there's the strange case of Todd Thomson (the Citigroup exec who fell so in love with Maria that he flagrantly violated ethics, and common sense, just to spend time with her). She's also fun because her nickname is "Money Honey," and what's more: she's applied for a trademark for the phrase! Delicious.

Well, she might have to move fast to use the phrase before she loses the IP to a new generation of money honeys (money honeyettes?). News Corp. (NYSE: NWS)'s Fox Business News has a bevy of beauties dishing up the news on the stock market and the economy: Liz Claman, Dagen McDowell, Jenna Lee, Alexis Glick. Ben Stein wants to know, where did they all come from? His analysis, that finance is both boring and inscrutable, and that men would rather get this boring, inscrutable and (largely) completely irrelevant news from beautiful women, is certainly sensible.



But there's an undercurrent in his story that has me troubled, and though I think that he's right in many aspects of his analysis (it's certainly true that more men watch financial news than women), I'm peeved that he never wonders whether the financial world has just been extremely sexist and is only just now starting to let loose. I also find it odd that he doesn't wonder if there were financially savvy women being excluded from business journalism until now. (His "where did they all come from" question makes it seem as if they sprung from the head of Lou Dobbs like Athena.)

Whither Money Honeys? Here's my thought:

Super Tuesday had a super payoff for CNN.

The Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) cable channel attracted 3.6 million viewers, beating out Fox News Channel which had 3.5 million and MSNBC -- which I prefer -- which had 2.1 million viewers between 8 and 11 p.m., according to The Los Angeles Times. Before you NPR listeners raise your Starbucks cafe au laits in triumph, remember that one night does not make a trend. Fox still rules the ratings roost overall.

This does underscore a few trends. One is that Fox is no longer the only voice of conservative thought on cable TV with the likes of Lou Dobbs on CNN and Pat Buchanan on MSNBC. Also, the far right brand of conservatism espoused by Fox may be out of favor. The presumptive Republican nominee John McCain is hardly a favorite of the far right even though he's trying really hard to mend fences ahead of the general election.

News Corp., though, is not hurting. During the second-quarter, operating income from its cable channels rose 34% to $1.24 billion as higher revenue from Fox News Channel and the other networks more than off set the startup costs at Fox Business Network and the Big Ten Network.

When Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) first announced plans to start a cable channel to compete against CNBC, I was psyched. At least, I thought, there would be an alternative to the General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) channel's must yell TV format. Boy was I wrong.

In its brief existence, Fox Business Network has largely distinguished itself for being undistinguished, making some unbelievably stupid mistakes such as confusing Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) with Abu Dhabi. More recently, the anchors of the show "Fox Business Happy Hour", Cody Willard and Tracy Byrnes, appeared a little too happy during a segment on of all things drunk driving. Call it an occupational hazard of hosting a show at a bar. Missing in all of this merriment was one crucial thing: breaking news.

(Note: I crossed paths with Willard and Byrnes at TheStreet.com though I never worked directly with either of them.)

The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) and General Electric (NYSE: GE)'s CNBC have agreed to share each other's content, a move designed to counter the synergies that the $5 billion acquisition of Dow Jones brought to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NYSE: NWS) empire.

Under the terms of the agreement, Times articles will be posted on CNBC's website while the cable channel's video will be on the newspaper's website, according to a story in the New York Times. Though content-sharing agreements are as common as mud, this one is worth watching because it's so high profile.

It wouldn't surprise me if the Times and CNBC eventually did joint projects, particularly time-consuming investigative stories. Also, expect the Times op-ed columnists such as Frank Rich and Paul Krugman to make more appearances on CNBC shows, no doubt much to the horror of Larry Kudlow.

Though Fox Business Network could get better ratings shouting the news over bullhorn in the middle of Manhattan, CNBC can't afford to take the fledging network for granted. After all, Murdoch now has at his disposal some of the best business journalists in the world who could whip his CNBC competitor into shape,.

NOTE: I've done freelance writing for The New York Times.

Believe it or not, News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch does sometimes deliver for shareholders.

Shares of the parent company of 20th Century Fox are down about 2% this year, which while lousy, actually is significantly better than other media conglomerates including Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS), Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), and Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA), which each are down much more. The attraction here isn't shareholder value. It's Murdoch.

Quite simply, the Australian media tycoon is the most dynamic CEO in the industry. He's one of the few who does stuff stuff just because he feels like doing it. Just because the market really doesn't need another cable news business channel, that doesn't mean that Murdoch won't start one. Fox Business Network isn't going to make a nickel for years and won't do much for shareholders. The same goes for Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ). Spending $5 billion for the publisher of the Wall Street Journal may be a slight help to the bottom line, though its potential may not be realized for years either.

What makes Murdoch tick is lust for power and influence. He started Fox Business Network because he thought that CNBC wasn't pro business enough, a sentiment that probably shocked the likes of Larry Kudlow and Jim Cramer. Advertisers are no doubt getting commercial time on Fox Business for a fraction of what they would pay on CNBC or Bloomberg TV. The question is whether they'll be interested in the network once its novelty begins to wear off.

As for the Journal, worries about Murdoch interfering with the newspaper are overblown. He doesn't have to ring up an editor to tell him about a story he hates. A high-level Murdoch employee knows very well what the mogul likes and doesn't like and will comport himself accordingly.

Be sure to check out more Money Winners of 2007.

Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) will begin an online technology TV show early next year.

The New York Times writes, "to be called TechTicker, the Web program will report exclusively on technology stocks, offering daily streaming-video segments and blog posts, as well as some live coverage of breaking news, said Brian Nelson, a spokesman for Yahoo." Hosts will include Henry Blodget of Silicon Alley Insider and blogger Paul Kedrosky.

The idea just may work, and it could offer some competition for the likes of CNBC and Fox Business Network. Internet consumers have become used to watching video online, particularly because of the success of YouTube. And, Yahoo! Finance and the portal's technology news section can certainly promote the new video news service by sending it a great deal of traffic.

The plan may also be a financial success. Video ads placed in online content tend to get much higher CPMs than display ads do. If some of the visitors to Yahoo! are willing to watch business and tech news presented in video instead of print, the online giant may be able to improve its ad yield.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Shares of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) and Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) haven't done well this year. Have they been in Wall Street's dog house long enough?

Time Warner, down 18% this year, trades, at a multiple of 18. Disney, whose shares are little changed, is trading a forward price-to-earnings ratio of 17. News Corp., also little changed, is the most richly valued of the bunch with a forward p/e of 20. All three of them report earnings this week. To put it diplomatically, expectations are low. Disney is probably the most compelling value there because of strong brands and top-flight management.

Revenue at Time Warner is expected to be $1.41 billion, up 14.8% according to analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial. Earnings are expected to be 11 cents compared with 19 cents a year earlier. The stock rose today after the company announced that Jeff Bewkes would replace Richard Parsons as CEO starting next year. Don't expect any big changes at AOL, though. The strategy to turn around the Internet unit was developed by Bewkes. The company will come under pressure to divest AOL and other businesses including publishing. Earnings are due Wednesday.

Disney reports Thursday. Analysts aren't expecting much out of the Mouse House. Revenue is expected to inch up 2.2% to $8.98 billion. Earnings are expected at 41 cents versus 36 cents a year earlier. With the record-low dollar, the company's Theme Parks are dirt-cheap for foreign tourists. Earnings also should be helped by the "High School Musical" franchise and a solid performance by the ABC Television network.

There will be plenty of talk about the acquisition of Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ) on Thursday's News Corp. earnings conference call. There will also be discussion about the surging popularity of Facebook. Though so far the Fox Business Network has underwhelmed critics, Murdoch will no doubt put a positive spin on the channel's debut. Revenue for the quarter is expected to increase 9.6% to $6.48 billion. Earnings are pegged at 23 cents versus 19 cents a year earlier.

Wow, the Fox Business Network hasn't even been on the air for a month, and its critics are already writing its obituary because the channel has made some boneheaded moves.

First, as Fox-hater Keith Olbermann noted, the News Corp (NYSE: NWS) channel did some "creative" editing of negative newspaper reviews and turned them into positive ones? Yesterday, Olbermann, the host of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, "awarded" network honcho Roger Ailes the title of "Worst Person in the World" because presumably mortal enemy Bill O'Reilly's evilness just wasn't up to snuff. This bit is part of Olbermann's shtick on his program which regularly outrages conservatives.

Of course, Ailes is far from the worst person in the world. At best, he and his boss Rupert Murdoch are in the top 10% of evil-doers, well behind the likes of Osama bin Laden, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and people who dress up their pets in Halloween costumes. But unlike many arch-villains, Ailes is a very creative and resourceful guy.

For instance, he's lined up Minyanville.com characters "Hoofy the Bull" and "Boo the Bear" to host a segment on the network's critically derided Happy Hour program. Is this idea going to win a Peabody? Of course not, but it's not the end of the world, either. Still, this feature wasn't a smart PR move, because it plays into the hands of Fox's many critics, including Joe Nocera of The New York Times, who have blasted the network for being too upbeat.

Sometimes corporate competition can get pretty silly and downright petty, and this would appear to be one of those instances. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) rolled out its new Fox Business Network yesterday [subscription required], a few months after the company won its bid to acquire Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ), the parent company of The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch.

And now, for the corporate espionage. CNBC somehow got Dow Jones to sign a contract allowing the cable business news network to buy all the advertising on Marketwatch.com on Monday, October 15th -- the day that News Corp., the soon to be parent company of Marketwatch, was set to launch its new business network.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "The advertising contract was signed Sept. 11, 2007, and included specific provisions for Oct. 15, the Fox Business Network launch date, according to a copy of the contract reviewed by the Journal. On that date, CNBC agreed to spend $59,500 to buy all of the ad space on Dow Jones's MarketWatch.com site, and agreed to an additional $27,500 to make sure any visitor to MarketWatch's home page would first see an advertisement from CNBC. This is known in ad parlance as a "roadblock."

Then Dow Jones pulled the CNBC ads yesterday, in an apparent attempt to suck-up to Mr. Murdoch -- it's hard to understand why else it would have done that.

All of this interesting and somewhat amusing. The one thing Dow Jones can probably take from it is that it should do a better job reviewing contracts. Shouldn't CNBC's request for October 15th have raised some alarms before the contract was signed?

But in the end, it probably isn't that important. FBN will be able to generate plenty of publicity, and its success or failure will depend on the quality of its content -- not the ads on MarketWatch on the day of its launch.

When Fox Busines Network debuts on October 15, it will be a fly buzzing around the elephant that is CNBC. All the talk about the looming war, battle, or clash of the titans is hype.

As BusinessWeek points out, Fox Business Network will have one-third of CNBC's reach and will also lag behind Bloomberg TV. News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch has said his channel will be geared toward Main Street instead of CNBC's Wall Street focus. I don't know what that statement means. CNBC's mission is to try and convince individual investors they must act RIGHT NOW to avoid financial ruin or to gain immediate riches. That seems to speak directly to Main Street.

Murdoch, though, is a patient man. People thought he was nuts to take on Time Warner Inc.'s (NYSE: TWX) CNN, and now Fox News rules the ratings. He keeps the New York Post going because he wants to stick it to the liberal media establishment A.K.A. The New York Times. Power motivates him almost as much as money. That's why the media tycoon doesn't care if Fox Business News isn't immediately profitable or even if it takes some time to get into the black. He's trying to prove a point.

The biggest challenge facing Fox Business News is the same one facing the General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) cable channel: attracting an audience. For most people who don't read stock market blogs, business news is pretty dry stuff. That's why CNBC's anchors always yell the news written in their teleprompters to make things seem more exciting.

Liberals from the coffee houses of Cambridge to the wine bars of San Francisco cackled with joy when they learned that Fox News had shelved the 1/2 Hour News Hour, the News Corp.'s (NYSE: NWS) channel's clone of The Daily Show.

As TV Newser points out, Fox Senior Vice President Bill Shine told staff in a memo that. "There is still a chance you will see the program at some point in the future." The Web site pointed out that the program had its fans, winning its timeslot all but once.

So, why cancel it then?

The anonymous folks on TV Newser's discussion boards certainly didn't find it amusing and suggest that its ratings plunged after an initial spike. The clip I heard on Fox's Web site, which doesn't provide any links to the show on its home page, didn't tickle my funny bone. Neither did the clip on YouTube featuring the always amusing Rush Limbaugh as president and Ann Coulter as vice president.

Jon Stewart probably didn't lose too much sleep worrying about this show.

Fret not conservatives, comedy hasn't died completely on Fox News. Those hysterical cutups Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly aren't going anywhere. I'm sure that Neil Cavuto will keep the laughs coming on the yet-to-be launched Fox Business Network.

Maybe Fox will replace 1/2 Hour News Hour with Red Eye with Greg Gutfeld. Red Eye routinely wins the coveted 2 a.m. drunk/insomniac timeslot. Gutfeld is conservative, goofy and at times pretty funny. His program deserves a spot in your DVR though it too isn't on Fox News' home page.

Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (NYSE: DJ)'s Wall Street Journal (a.k.a., Rupert's Rag, a.k.a. The Towel) occupies a unique spot in the media firmament. As I pointed out earlier in the year, it changed its format and now looks to me like a Holiday Inn bath towel. And since News Corp (NYSE: NWS) has finally won over enough Bancrofts to take control, I have officially changing this column's name from Towel Talk to Rupert's Rag, which will continue to offer a perspective on its news and views.

AP reports that Murdoch's victory is complete. As I said in today's New York Sun, I think that a sufficient portion of the Bancrofts succumbed to Murdoch because they were unable to afford the cost of the shareholder lawsuits that would have been directed their way had they turned down his $60 a share offer. If the Bancrofts had turned down the offer, the stock would have fallen back at least to the $36 it traded at before May when Murdoch announced the offer ... and the board would have been the target of lawsuits from angry shareholders. Also highlighting the Bancroft's poverty, Murdoch was able to get enough votes by offering to pick up the $30 million tab for legal and financial advice to the Bancroft trusts.