• by David Goetzl , February 3, 2009

News Corp. looks to have leveraged its strong Fox News Channel to gain added distribution for its fledgling business network. The company said Tuesday that it had reached a deal with satellite operator Dish Network that includes bringing Fox Business Network to 4 million homes.

In the same announcement, News Corp. said FNC had increased its presence in Dish homes, suggesting a package deal was in place. The deal with Dish also puts Fox News Channel on Dish's Classic Bronze 100 tier--an improvement from America's Top 200 level, where it had been previously housed.

FBN launched in the fall of 2007 as a would-be challenger to CNBC, its primary rival. FBN is now in some 50 million homes, while CNBC has more than 94 million subscribers.

Both Fox channels will have an HD feed on Dish.