“It’s so important, more than ever before, to recognize what the point of these debates are”, Bartiromo told Fox Business on October 30.
Advertisement
DIRECTV, Suddenlink, Mediacom, Frontier, Wide Open West, and Cable One, along with a significant number of National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) member companies, will unbundle FBN, making the channel available to their full subscriber base ahead of the debates, FBN announced.
FOX Business Network and the Wall Street Journal, which are hosting the Milwaukee debate, are lengthening the time for candidate responses.
This year is very different. Donald Trump has received (and has taken) much of the credit for an extraordinary surge in viewership.
That’s shy of the first three debates, but it hasn’t prompted the ire of the Republican Party. “The debate falls at a pivotal time in the election cycle and through the help and support of these partners, many more of their customers will have access to it”, said Tim Carry, executive vice president of distribution for FBN and FOX News Channel. The event, jointly hosted by Fox Business Network and the Wall Street Journal, will air across the network at 9 p.m. Eastern and will stream for free via the network’s website.
With the high ratings expectations come high ad rates: Fox is charging roughly $175,000 for a 30-second commercial during the debate, according to two people involved in ad sales.
FBN is available in a few 82 million homes in the United States, or a little more than three-quarters of the TV households. There was a backlash, with President Obama wondering how the candidates would be able to face the nation’s adversaries if they thought debate moderators were too tough. It will be a relatively intimate affair featuring only four GOP candidates: Chris Christie, Mike Huckabee, Bobby Jindal and Rick Santorum. This marked the fourth GOP primary debate, but the first where the main takeaways had nothing to do with the moderators or the nature of their questions.
The “undercard” debate is set to last an hour. But its bigger brother network is helping to get the word out about the debate.
Moderators Neil Cavuto, left, Maria Bartiromo and Gerard Baker arrive on stage before the Republican presidential debate at the Milwaukee Theatre, Tuesday, November 10, 2015, in Milwaukee.
Advertisement
Fox Business is also using the debate as a launchpad for a new season of its highest-rated show, the documentary series “Strange Inheritance”.
