Fox Business Network beat rival CNBC in total business-day viewers for the fourth consecutive month in January, according to Nielsen Research.
In the busy month leading up to and after the inauguration of President Trump, Fox Business delivered its second-highest-rated month in its 10-year history, only behind the election month of November in 2016.
CNBC did top Fox Business in business-day ratings — 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. — 42,000 to 32,000 in the 25- to 54-year-old demographic. Fox Business, however, grew 45 percent year over year compared to January 2016, while CNBC declined by 2 percent.
“We’re covering it in a different way that’s entertaining and cuts through the jargon that is so often associated with business news,” Stuart Varney, host of “Varney and Company,” told The Hill.
{mosads}”I don’t allow jargon on my program. I never allow any ‘Q3’ or ‘earnings per share.’ When you start doing that, you bust your audience.”
Varney was with CNBC as host of “Wall Street Journal Editorial Board” before moving to Fox. Other Fox Business hosts, including Neil Cavuto, Trish Regan, Melissa Francis, Charles Gasparino and Maria Bartiromo are among those who also made the jump from CNBC, which has been on the air since 1989.
For Fox Business, the rise of Trump to the presidency, the continued rise of the stock market and Americans becoming considerably more interested in politics has proved to be a winning combination.
“The slogan for my show is ‘Money and Politics.’ That’s it,” explained Varney. “Those two stories, money and politics, have captured every headline the past couple of years.”
“It’s about money: the stock market rally. It’s about politics: the astonishing rise of Donald Trump. That’s what we do,” he continued. “And I think that’s the basis of our success, presenting money and politics in an entertaining fashion.”
CNBC announced in 2015 that it will no longer rely on Nielsen ratings to measure its daytime audience, turning to rival Cogent Reports instead.
The financial network made the switch after complaining for years that Nielsen fails to track “out of home” viewing in locations such as airports, gyms, restaurants and offices.
“I don’t know why they’ve taken that position,” Varney said. “I do know that starting in 2015, we started to beat them. By 2016, we really beat them. And in the last three months, we’ve really beaten them significantly, especially in the month when the Dow Jones Industrial average hit 20,000.”
“They’re the legacy financial news network. We’re the new guys in town,” Varney added. “They should have owned Dow 20,000, and they didn’t.
“We’re very proud we took them on that particular day and in that particular month.”
The Dow has risen nearly 1,700 points since Election Day and hit 20,000 for the first time ever on Jan. 25.
On that day, Fox Business averaged 253,000 viewers, while CNBC registered 178,000.
Among the 25- to 54-year-old demographic, Fox Business averaged 41,000 viewers against CNBC’s 26,000.