ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 31, 1996 TAG: 9601310057
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press|
Roger Ailes, former CNBC president and Republican strategist, will launch the Fox 24-hour news channel, network chief Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday.
``The appetite for news - particularly news that explains to people how it affects them - is expanding enormously,'' Murdoch said at a news conference at his News Corp.'s headquarters.
Ailes, who begins Feb. 5, also reports to Murdoch as a senior adviser on television issues and strategy.
His first job: ``Look at the resources, look at the dollars, look at the people and try to figure out how to put it together in one dynamic news organization,'' Ailes said.
Murdoch gave no starting date for the network other than ``within this year.'' Last month, ABC announced plans for an all-news cable network in 1997, and an NBC-Microsoft partnership promised to go on the air and on-line this summer.
The Fox news channel, however, will air on both cable and satellite systems as part of a News Corp. ``worldwide platform'' for Fox programming.
``Within two years we'll have a satellite-to-home operation the likes of which you've never seen in this country,'' along with a similar system this year for South America and STAR TV beaming into Asia, Murdoch said.
Murdoch said Fox News already spends $30 million annually and will probably cost $80 million in its expanded form.
``We would expect that our running costs of Fox news, from doing magazine shows for the network to a full, 24-hour news service, will come in at less than $100 million a year,'' Murdoch said.
CNN, spending about $400 million a year on news gathering, has looked askance at other would-be 24-hour news channels. ``CNN has never been better poised to meet any and all challenges, and we welcome Fox to the arena,'' CNN spokesman Steve Haworth said.
Ailes resigned as president of CNBC on Jan. 18 after NBC struck a deal with Microsoft that will fold its companion talk channel, America's Talking, which he founded in 1994.
LENGTH: Short : 47 linesby CNB