Fox Biz Audience Threatens to Break Five Digits

Remember when Fox Business Network launched? Remember when it was the biggest TV news of all time, including the actual invention of television itself? Remember when News Corp was going to parlay the Fox and Wall Street Journal brands into a business juggernaut that would probably culminate in Rupert Murdoch's face being printed on every denomination of currency? Or something like that?

Well, a few quarters later and we have some ratings figures for FBN. And while I had the vague sense that the channel was not doing that hot, I had no idea it was this bad. On average, 8,000 people watch FBN during the day.

Eight thousand. Writes Portfolio's Jeff Bercovici, that's compared with 284,000 daytime viewers for CNBC. Eight. Thousand. That's—what, a smallish hockey arena crowd? A respectable-sized liberal arts college?

To be fair, FBN draws an average 20,000 in primetime. That kicks you up to a sold-out Joe Louis Arena, or a decent-sized state university.