Fox to launch business channel next year

News Corp.'s Fox News plans to launch a business news channel by the middle of next year, according to an analyst report on Tuesday that cited recent comments by the network's chairman and chief executive, Roger Ailes.

"Mr. Ailes noted an early-to-mid calendar 2007 target for the launch of a Fox Business Channel," UBS analyst Aryeh Bourkoff said in a note to clients after meeting with Ailes.

"Ailes sees opportunity for a competitor to CNBC," Bourkoff wrote, noting that Ailes was president of CNBC, the General Electric Co.-controlled incumbent business news channel, in the 1990s.

Bourkoff was not immediately reachable for further comment.