Fox News SuccessStory

They had to make Fox unique enough to attract their own market share.

The first step the company took was to launch the network on the Cable platform. Here, it went against industry standard and instead of getting paid to broadcast their network, Fox directly went to the cable companies and offered to pay them $11 per subscriber to carry the channel.

This allowed Fox to be viewed in 17 million homes during its launch, which would’ve been substantially lower if Fox hadn’t paid the cable companies. They slowly pried the market open and after the 2000 Presidential elections, the company had seen a 440% surge in viewership.

There were many things about their broadcasting style that were different and innovative from the get go. People at Fox believed in visual presentation and therefore everything on the screen had to be eye-catching and colourful. They surmised what the reporter was saying through bullet points, helping a wider audience grasp just what was being said.

Along with that, they started the trend of interrupting regular programming with Breaking News bulletins when important news or problems needed to be reported.

After the September 11 attacks, Fox started the news ticker on the bottom on the television screen, a sight that has now become familiar. It was the first news channel to implement the ticker, keeping the major headlines and others news in text constantly on play during their programming.

Fox went ahead to become #1 News broadcast network but it has its fair share of controversies. It’s considered staunchly right-wing republican and the anchors and reporters often cite conservative views and prejudices on air. Their opinion shows like The O’Reilly Factor and Hannity and Colmes have been subject to a lot of criticism.

Nevertheless, Fox News Channels remains the industry leader in News Broadcasting and enjoys great success.