• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 30, 2003

In a development that could send new shivers up the spines of the management at CNN, not to mention CNBC and maybe even the E! Entertainment Network, the Fox Entertainment Group is considering one or more spin-offs of its wildly successful Fox News Channel. And a financial news version that would compete with CNBC and an entertainment news channel competing with E! would be likely contenders.

Fox Entertainment Group president-CEO Peter Chernin Tuesday told analysts and investors attending a Wall Street conference that the company is looking to expand the Fox News Channel franchise, including the development of one or more cable channels, as well as a radio network. He noted a radio network would extend the Fox News brand with very little capital costs.

Since turning on the lights in October 1996, Fox News Channel has grown to the point where it's been able to beat pioneer Cable News Network in viewership. It took only five years for Fox News Channel to bust what CNN had been working on since 1980, when Ted Turner invented the form. Fox's average viewership is 1.15 million compared to CNN's 761,000 viewers and MSNBC's 373,000 viewers.

Chernin, who was made the announcement at Goldman Sachs' Communicopia conference in New York, declined to give specifics about new Fox news channels, but Fox already carries extensive business coverage and could challenge the business-news networks of AOL Time Warner (CNNfn) and General Electric (CNBC). CNBC has a second business network on the digital tier called CNBC World and Bloomberg has a 24-hour digital business news network.

A Fox assault on CNBC would be ironic considering that Fox News Channel chief Roger Ailes was a driving force in the initial success of CNBC before joining Fox.

"There's blood in the water with CNBC," said Bob Flood, director of national electronic media at Optimedia International. "Business news would be a logical niche for them. They could play to the strength of their personalities."

Fox News Channel lured business TV reporters like former CNBC anchor Neil Cavuto (who is managing editor of business news at Fox News Channel) and former CNN financial reporter Terry Keenan. Malcolm Forbes hosts a weekend program and other weekend market-themed shows, "Bulls and Bears" and "Cashin ' In," feature former MASH actor-turned-businessman Wayne Rogers.

Flood pondered other extensions to the Fox News Channel brand.

"I don't think they'd be hard-pressed to do entertainment news. It's very much an entertainment-focused company and if you looked at it from a 30,000-foot view, he owns TV Guide and what better inflection point than to take that asset and extend the brand to television and tie it into their electronic program guides?"