MUMBAI: News Corp. will launch Fox Business Network (FBN) on 15 October in a bid to rival business cable channels CNBC and Bloomberg Television, a company statement said.

To be headquartered in New York with established news bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and London, FBN has secured distribution agreements with leading U.S. cable operators including Comcast and Time Warner cable. This is expected to provide the network with at least 30 million subscribers, when it debuts.
News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch had previously said it would launch the business channel in the fourth quarter, but did not provide a date.

FBN "will look and feel different", with more emphasis on entertainment than mere market coverage. The past several months have been spent designing the channel under the eye of senior vice president Fox News veteran Brian Jones.

Jones reports to Fox News executive VP Kevin McGee who will manage the day-to-day operations of FBN.

Currently, Murdoch is in the midst of talks on a $5 billion offer for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co. The deal would provide the new FBN with reporting staff and content from one of the most respected business newspapers.

However, if the deal is through, a content sharing deal between rival CNBC and the Journal that is active till 2012, is expected to complicate any possible synergies between FBN and the Journal.