News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) said Wednesday that will launch a new cable-television business channel on October 15 that will directly compete with General Electric's (NYSE: GE) market leader, CNBC.

The new channel, to be called Fox Business Network, has already secured distribution agreements with leading cable providers in the U.S, including Comcast and Time Warner Cable, to make it available on over 30 million subscribers. CNBC currently reaches 90 million viewers while Bloomberg Television reaches 49 million.

Neil Cavuto, a Fox News senior vice president, will head the new channel.

In recent years, News Corp.'s Fox News channel has taken the top ratings spot from CNN as the leading 24-hour news channel.

The network will have its headquarters in New York and has established news bureaus in Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington and London.

Murdoch is a in the midst of a $5 billion takeover attempt of Dow Jones & Co. (NYSE: DJ), the publisher of The Wall Street Journal. The acquisition could add strong news content to the new channel. CNBC currently has a content-sharing agreement with the Journal that runs through 2012.

The new channel will add another component to News Corp., which includes Fox television and film studios, the online social networking site, Myspace, and a number of other media outlets.

CNBC is owned by General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE).

Comcast