Fox Business Channel takes on CNBC

Rupert Murdoch's Fox Business Network made its debut at 5 a.m. EDT on Monday, aiming to expand the audience for business news beyond Wall Street viewers and take on incumbent cable business news leader CNBC.

Big-name guests on the new network's first day include U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, in a taped interview, and British entrepreneur Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group.

FBN wasted no time tweaking the competition. In a dimly lit street across from CNBC's headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, Fox Business stocks editor Elizabeth MacDonald delivered morning business news updates.

"Who would've thought anyone could cover the stock markets out there -- but here we go," MacDonald quipped. "It's hunting season, and we hear that peacocks are in season."

A multicolored peacock is the corporate logo for CNBC and parent NBC Universal.

Some two years in the making, News Corp's Fox Business Network will air to a little over 30 million homes in the United States, or under a third of CNBC's reach, from studios at its New York headquarters.

Murdoch said he is considering launching versions in other countries and plans to invest $300 million over the next three years, by which time he hopes FBN will have beat CNBC in ratings, according to a Fortune report on Monday.

Playing David to the industry Goliath is a familiar role for Fox News President Roger Ailes, who oversees Fox Business.

Ailes ran CNBC until he was poached by Murdoch to launch Fox News in 1996. A staple of brash and opinionated talk shows made Fox News entertaining and helped it beat Time Warner Inc's CNN in ratings ever since its fourth year.

FBN kicked off its first programming day with "Fox Business Morning," hosted by former Forbes.com reporter Jenna Lee and ex-Bloomberg anchor Nicole Petallides.

They moderated discussions on fast-food chain stocks, such as McDonald's, interspersed with weather and sports updates.

Ahead of the launch, Fox Business said little about its lineup, citing competitive concerns. Just one day after CNBC announced a new segment on its "Fast Money" show that will take place inside a bar, Fox Business said it has been developing a show since July called "Happy Hour," which will also take place inside a bar. The news leaked after it began rehearsals.

What Fox Business has said is that it will seek to demystify Wall Street, helping regular viewers connect global business trends to ordinary people's lives.

"A lot of people who don't have a lot of money (will) appreciate the fact that we're not speaking over their heads," Neil Cavuto, the network's managing editor, told Reuters recently. "That's a way of ensuring going beyond the typical Wall Street crowd."

The network will have its own equities index, the FOX50, which includes large-cap stocks with a heavy consumer interest such as AT&T Inc, FedEx Corp, Johnson & Johnson and Microsoft Corp.

The launch is part of Murdoch's plan to dominate global business news coverage on air and in print, and follows News Corp's $5 billion deal to buy Dow Jones & Co Inc, publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Even before the deal's anticipated closing in the next few weeks, Fox Business executives are already drawing comparisons.

"It's pretty analogous to The Wall Street Journal," Cavuto said, describing how business world developments will be connected to general news. "There's a column there for the latest business developments and there's a column for the latest news developments and they live fairly harmoniously together."

FBN reporters were heard saying on-air, "The Wall Street Journal tells Fox Business," when referring to stories they picked up from the paper.

What the channel won't have at launch is actual Wall Street Journal business reporters. A 15-year agreement between General Electric Co's CNBC and Dow Jones prevents Journal business reporters from appearing on Fox Business until the contract ends in 2012.