Fox Business Channel Ready For Action in 2007

A Fox Business channel in 2007? It's now a matter of 'when' -- not 'if' -- according to this report from the MediaDailyNews. It quotes News Corp. (NWS) President and COO Peter Chernin as saying the much-anticipated Fox Business Channel is on schedule to launch in early 2007 in 30 million homes:

"We just want to make sure we have all the distribution deals locked up...and we think we're getting pretty close to doing that," Chernin said Tuesday at an investors' conference.

Then this:

Regarding the Fox Business Channel, about half of its initial 30 million homes are likely to be customers with DirecTV, the News Corp.-owned DBS service. News Corp. has a head start in launching new cable channels, since it can instantly give a new outlet distribution in 15.5 million DirecTV homes.

Since News Corp. acquired DirecTV three years ago, Chernin has said the company intends to use it to launch one new cable channel a year. So far, the launches have included the Fox Reality channel and Fuel. In addition to the business network, DirecTV will serve as a springboard next year for the launch of the Big Ten Channel, a joint venture between Fox and the vaunted athletic conference.

Since the news channel is all but launched, I'm wondering two things:

First, will Fox keep the programming slant of their all-news channel in shows like "Your World" and extend it to their new business channel? I'm talking about how they bend over backwards to make general news topics fit business news -- and even stock picks by panelists. And many weekdays, "Your World" barely has one pure business/investing segment.

This isn't a slam at Fox. CNN dropped Lou Dobb's "MoneyLine" program several years ago and has him hosting a conventional news-talk cable program. Neil Cavuto is an excellent interviewer and, from what I understand, is one of the few talking heads who actually writes most of his stuff. I just hope that he gets to do more business and investing news on any all-news channel.

The second thing I'll be watching is to see if the Fox Business Channel leads Rupert Murdoch into bidding for Dow Jones or the Financial Times. Either would be a great content provider for any 24-hour business channel. (Yes, I know Dow Jones currently has an agreement to provide content to CNBC.)