Friday marked the 15th anniversary of the Fox News Channel, and after 10 years as the most watched network in cable news, what's left?
The networks.
Having beat the original cable news channel, CNN, at its bread and butter of breaking news, Roger Ailes and his boys are going after Diane Sawyer, Brian Williams and Scott Pelley.
“To be honest, we’re looking up to try to get to CBS or one of the networks at 6:30 during my timeslot,” Bret Baier, host of Fox's Special Report, told TheWrap.
And, he insists, it's not just a pipe dream: “For the midterm election in 2010, the coverage we had led all the networks, networks and cable news channels,” he added.
Also read: Current TV's David Bohrman: Fox News Is the New Mainstream
Of course toppling the broadcast networks will not happen immediately -- nor is it likely in terms of mainstream prestige.
But in terms of ratings, this remains a very real goal for the network, and one that even those outside of Fox think is possible.
Last quarter the network newscasts still ranged from 5.5 to 8 million nightly viewers, with newsmagazines like ABC's "20/20" and "Dateline NBC" a rung below that.
On Fox, Bill O'Reilly leads the pack, averaging almost 2.9 million viewers in the last quarter, with Sean Hannity second at 2 million and Baier third at just shy of 1.9 million.
“There are moments where, if you add it up the right way, cable news stations in general rival the networks for certain momentous events, (such as) during conventions,” said Michael X. Delli Carpini, the Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School for Communication.
Also read: Roger Ailes to Rupert Murdoch: 'If I'd Screwed it Up, I'd be Dead'
"The distinction between the networks and cable is increasingly going away," Delli Carpini said. "For a lot of people who are younger, who grew up with these hundred cable stations, the idea that something is a network and not a network doesn’t mean anything anymore.”
Read between the lines: the gap is narrowing.
But how can a CBS, NBC or ABC, with their larger audiences and storied histories, possibly be at risk of drawing fewer viewers than Fox? By underestimating the network.
That's the mistake CNN made after Ailes launched Fox in 1996.
“Nothing in my experience with them, beginning in 2001, suggested to me that they understood the threat that Fox presented to their franchise,” Aaron Brown, a former ABC and CNN host who is now a professor at Arizona State’s Walter Cronkite School for Journalism, told TheWrap. He said, "the attitude at CNN... was very dismissive.”
As ESPN has demonstrated, a cable organization with a good business plan, a strong brand and a massive war chest can rival any of the major networks.
