Fox Business: We’re unbundling for debate

Fox Business Network has the rights to the next Republican presidential debate, which is slated to air Tuesday.

One problem: The network is available in 82 million homes across the country, fewer than CNBC (93 million), CNN (97 million) and Fox News Channel (87 million), which carried the first three debates. (Note: An earlier version of this story included a much lower, outdated number for FBN’s households.)

So the network is doing something that will make the debate accessible to many more eyeballs.

For one night only, it’s unbundling.

Fox Business’ debate feed will be made available to every tier of subscriber across a number of cable and satellite providers, a shrewd move that assures this will be by far the most-watched program in network history.

Fox Business will be made available on: DIRECTV, Suddenlink, Mediacom, Frontier, Wide Open West, and Cable One, as well as what the network describes as “a significant number of National Cable Television Cooperative (NCTC) member companies.”

The first three debates have been huge hits, becoming the most-watched program in network history on all three channels, including a staggering 24 million viewers for the first debate on Fox News.

Every debate has featured a breakout candidate, too, from Donald Trump to Carly Fiorina to Ben Carson, in a race that didn’t have a clear frontrunner when the summer began.

Tags: debate, fbn, fox, fox business, fox business debate, fox business network