News Corp. chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch wants you to know his Fox Business Network’s not losing money anymore. On an earnings call Wednesday, Murdoch described the four-year old business channel as reaching “cash break even” status–not losing money, but not making money either. At the time of FBN’s 2007 launch, the network projected breaking even within five years, so executives see the milestone as a victory even as CNBC continues to dominate the cable business news niche. “Fox Business has made great strides,” News Corp. president Chase Carey said on the earnings call.

Many observers inside and outside News Corp. have noted that as market woes have brought intense interest in business news, CNBC and FBN have seen ratings jumps–but as The Los Angeles Times reports, Fox has jumped a bit higher:

Fox Business has posted huge — in many cases record — percentage increases in ratings over the last week. The gains have been bigger than those experienced by CNBC, which is not surprising given that Fox Business is in only 58 million homes while CNBC is in north of 90 million homes.

From Thursday through Tuesday, the daytime audience (9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.) for Fox Business grew 256% to 128,000 viewers, from 36,000 viewers for the same period last year. From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m, Fox’s audience was up 162% to 131,000 viewers from 50,000 a year earlier.

A particular standout is Lou Dobbs, whose Lou Dobbs Tonight beat CNBC’s The Kudlow Report by 45% among viewers 25-54 last Thursday. As Murdoch told investors, “the ratings are in fact improving. Certain times of the day we are head-to-head with CNBC and we are beating them. We do need more distribution, that’s true.”

Carey suggested that just like ESPN, Fox News is a channel that viewers demand–and for which they’ll pay a premium.

Speaking at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference, Carey said fees for Fox News, as the dominant cable news network, should be brought in line with fees paid to ESPN:

“That channel in the cable world is right there with ESPN, as important a channel as exists out there,” he said. “Clearly a lot of customers [would] move if it weren’t there.”

As Broadcasting & Cable reports, Carey would not comment on the specifics of deals cut with cable companies over the retransmission of the Fox television network, he argued that News Corp.’s various properties were not being given rates that are “anything close to competitive:”

ESPN is the highest priced national cable channel at about $4 per subscriber per month. After its launch deals began expiring in 2006, Fox News, which has grown into the top-rated cable news channel, was able to increase its rate to about $1. Now some of those deals are expiring, opening the door to a new round of negotiations.

Carey said that other News Corp. cable channels also have opportunities to increase their sub fees, especially when compared to their more established competitors

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News Corp. president and COO Chase Carey will go to Capitol Hill tomorrow ready to make a not-so-subtle threat to lawmakers on the Senate Subcommittee on Communications: cable companies will simply have to pay more to broadcasters (like, for instance, Fox) or you can pretty much forget about catching your goofy weather guy before going to bed at night. And no more football, either.

Janko Roettgers at GigaOm has obtained a copy of Carey’s prepared remarks to the committee, which is looking into the heated debate over retransmission fees, which were the sticking point that left Cablevision viewers without access to Fox for two weeks–even going to the un-American extent to deprive cable customers of the first two games of the World Series.

The word from News Corp. bigs now: you ain’t seen nothing yet:

“If we can’t sell our content for a price that allows us a fair return on our investment, we will no longer be able to invest in the high quality content that viewers enjoy,” (Carey’s) statement reads. One of the first items on the chopping block would be sports coverage, which has already seen a migration towards ESPN and other cable channels. He continues:

“Additionally, local news, which is very expensive to produce, could be eliminated entirely or become less local in nature, as advertising alone can no longer cover the hefty production costs. Broadcast channels would become much less desirable, and broadcasters and the people they employ and the viewers they serve, would be irreparably harmed.”

By now you most likely know the essence of Movember: that magical month in which folks all over the world grow moustaches for charity, be they jaunty, distinguished, menacing, filthy, magnificent, wispy, or “other”.
raise some sweet cash for prostate and testicular cancer research.

The charity is Movember, and the sweet cash has been raised by sites across the internet all month, notably by our friends at Asylum (“Grow a Mustache, Punch Cancer in the Mouth“) and HuffPo (“Why I Grew A Mustache – And Why You Should Care“). That last one was written by a fellow named Ari Herzog, and you can see what he looks like with a fuzzy upper lip (and donate to his team!) here. To donate to team Asylum’s mustaches you can go here; or to put them over the top at the last minute, go to Mustaches vs. Cancer and donate here. Because as they say: “No red states, no blue states… just mustaches.” Indeed.

Well, I can’t grow a mustache and I’m glad of that, but I certainly can donate, so I just did, ’cause a gal’s gotta put her money where her moustache is. I can also show solidarity with the movement in other ways. See above. And, I can also use it as an excuse to celebrate the bountiful, glorious, luxuriant and luscious mustaches that abound in the media world — so that is exactly what I have done below. Click on the image to see not only the name of the mustachioed gent in question, but also my pithy commentary. There are hidden gems like songs and jokes and salty wet kisses from a hairy, hairy face. OK I’m lying, you can’t get that from the Internet. Yet.

Serving as Rupert Murdoch‘s #2 means there’s a lot to talk about – from White House vs. Fox News to Google.

Carey gave his measure take on the whole White House vs. Fox News situation. “We all recognize that the government should be acting as the government and Fox News is trying to cover the news,” said Carey. “At the end of the day it delivered stronger ratings and benefited Fox in the short term. At the end of the day we are proud of what we do at Fox News. We do believe we cover business in a fair and balanced way. We hope and believe that the government is not going to be vindictive against parties whose views they may not always like, but will accept there are a range of views.”

That’s a nice way of saying thanks for the publicity, and stick to governing.

Carey was more vague when Cavuto put him on the spot about the younger network, FBN, which has worked recently to cement its place in the business news world. After Carey spoke of his hopes for the company, Cavuto half-jokingly said, “It sounded like a bit of a warning.” Carey denied he was issuing a warning for better ratings, and turned the attention to distribution instead.

On another note, Carey weighed in on Rupert Murdoch‘s recent comments about wanting his sites removed from Google. From the transcript:

We believe you have to build healthy business models and we believe a healthy business model has to be supported above the advertising dollars in some form of payment…You have to believe in the quality of your content, the value of your content, and ultimately business models that will evolve, and if people aren’t doing it yet, that seems to be a path that does not lead you to a healthy business. We’re not going to be sheep jumping off a cliff.

It’s always a dicey situation for a network to interview one of the top execs at their corporate parent company. There’s a balance between asking the tough questions and portraying the company in a positive light. Here, Carey’s amiability led to a wide-ranging interview that stayed mostly as an opportunity for him to talk about the business without breaking any major news.

Here’s part of the interview, including Carey’s take on Don Imus:

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