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TS News - Fox News Channel Launches

TELE-satellit News, 9 October 1996

Fox News Channel Launches
  NEW YORK, New York, USA, 96/10/09 (SHOPTALK) -- With only a few first-day
glitches, News Corp.'s Fox News Channel, the third national 24-hour
cable-news outlet, launched on schedule Monday- but not in Manhattan.  An
ongoing dispute between Rupert Murdoch's
News Corp. and Time Warner Inc. prevented the cable channel from being seen
in the nation's media capital and the channel's home base.

  As News Corp. fought with Time Warner about securing a channel in
Manhattan, Fox set up a viewing room for television critics.  What they saw
was a professional looking lineup of 10-minute newscasts each half hour,
with in-depth reports following each. The channel's debut, to about 17
million US homes, filled a large hole in Murdoch's News Corp., which until
this week had only a tiny US News operation.

  Meanwhile, News Corp. continued to use political pressure to get Time
Warner to carry the channel in New York.  Last week, New York City officials
wrote two letters asking Time Warner to make room for FNC on its cable
system.  In a blow to News Corp., Time Warner ignored the pleas and has
continued to exclusively carry another all-news cable upstart, MSNBC, the
join venture between General Electric's NBC and Microsoft Corp.

  By: Don Fitzpatrick
  Source: Wall Street Journal via Shoptalk
--
Martyn Williams                        |Internet   : martyn@twics.com
Shimizu, Japan                         |Internet   : martyn@newsbytes.com
http://www.twics.com/~martyn           |CompuServe : 74777,1301
Fax 0543-64-0199                       |NiftyServe : PXQ00623

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