Murdoch: Pulling CNBC Ads Could Have Been “Heavy-Handed”

News Corp. Chairman Says FBN Should Expand Business TV Viewership

By Mike Farrell -- Multichannel News, 10/19/2007 10:20:00 AM

New York – News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said the controversy surrounding advertisements from CNBC that were pulled from the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch web sites during the launch of News’s rival Fox Business Network was done without his knowledge, but added that the decision to pull the ads could be perceived as being heavy handed.

Fox Business Network launched on Oct. 15 in about 30 million households. A New York Times report last week pointed out that ads that rival CNBC had contracted to run on the web sites – owned by Dow Jones, which News Corp. agreed to purchase for $5 billion – were pulled that day. According to the Times, CNBC had paid about $87,000 for the ads, but Dow Jones officials said they exercised their right to alter the timing of the advertising.

Speaking to reporters after News Corp.’s annual meeting here Friday, Murdoch said that he was unaware that the CNBC ads were pulled.

“It certainly wasn’t on instructions from News Corp. or even on request,” Murdoch said.

But Murdoch added that it would be well within News Corp.’s rights to reject ads from competitors.

“Fox doesn’t carry ads for programs on CBS or ABC or whatever,” he said. “I don’t think it’s unreasonable. In that particular case it did seem a little heavy handed.”

Murdoch said that although he has had little time to watch the Fox Business Network in the past four days, what he has seen he likes.

“I thought it was very impressive to date. They’ll get better as they go along, but it’s had some already outstanding programs,” Murdoch said.

FBN has touted itself as business network for “Main Street,” although it also would like to attract the high-net worth individuals who have been traditional viewers of CNBC.

“We would like to take some of their viewers, but we expect to expand the business viewing audience. Our objective is to have more than half of them,” Murdoch said.    

Earlier in the meeting Murdoch said that losses at FBN are expected to be about $70 million this fiscal year (which ends June 30, 2008), but should drop dramatically in the near future. He estimated that cumulative losses over the next three years should amount to between $150 million and $200 million.

Murdoch also seemed unconcerned about the five years left on rival CNBC exclusive agreement with the Journal. That deal is limited to business news and the use of Journal reporters on-air. Murdoch, as he has said in the past, added that other sections of the newspaper are fair game for FBN.

“We’ll wait and see,” Murdoch said. “I’m not aware of any television stars at the Journal.”