DATE: Saturday, July 26, 1997               TAG: 9707260467

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY LARRY BONKO, STAFF WRITER 

DATELINE: PASADENA, CALIF.                  LENGTH:   70 lines

HOW ABOUT ``FOX FAMILY CHANNEL?'' SOMEDAY, MURDOCH'S NEW CABLE NETWORK MIGHT OFFER KIDS' SHOWS ALL DAY LONG.

Fox executives meeting here with TV writers tossed out a name that might stick when the Virginia Beach-based Family Channel becomes part of Rupert Murdoch's vast media empire.

Try this on for size: ``The Fox Family Channel.''

The name first popped up when David Hill, president of Fox Television, led off his network's two-day round of previews, press conferences and interviews. Hill said he expects Fox Broadcasting to invest heavily in new programming for its cable properties - the fX channel and, in Hill's words, ``the Fox Family Channel.''

FOX FAM for short.

Will the name be permanent?

Margaret Loesch, vice chairwoman of Fox Kids Worldwide, under whose banner the new Family Channel will operate, said she likes ``Fox Family Channel'' and is also considering ``Fox Kids Family.''

The Family Channel, along with FiT-TV and MTM Productions, became part of the Murdoch empire in June when its parent company, Virginia Beach-based International Family Entertainment, was acquired by Fox Kids Worldwide.

Fox Kids is a partnership of Murdoch's News Corp. and Saban Entertainment. IFE was founded in 1989 by Virginia Beach televangelist Pat Robertson and his son Tim.

It was back in 1995 when Loesch began pressing her bosses, including Murdoch, to acquire acable channel for the Fox Kids Network shows. ``A strategic acquisition,'' she called it.

``We're programming for children 19 hours a week. Some cable channels do it around the clock. We wanted a level playing field,'' said Loesch, who also owns radio stations with her brother Rick in Edenton and Nags Head, N.C.

In 7 1/2 years with Fox, she has developed the Fox Kids Network into the highest-rated block of children's programming on TV, with 28 million viewers per month.

Children's programming generates revenue in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Also under Loesch, Fox Kids Worldwide was launched in Latin America and the United Kingdom.

She said that Fox and Saban never intended to buy all of International Family Entertainment. Nor did Fox and Saban anticipate that the price would be so high - $1.9 billion.

``It was never our intention to buy the entire IFE company, and it was never our intention to spend close to $2 billion to do it,'' Loesch said. ``But that is what we had to do.''

Loesch, who introduced eight new kids shows to the TV press, including ``Silver Surfer'' and one from producer Steven Spielberg called ``Toonsylvania,'' said she hopes to have children's programming on the ``Fox Family Channel'' from 6 a.m. until 6 p.m.

``No later than the fall of 1998,'' she said. ``In my dreams, I go beyond that 12-hour block.''

She said a program such as ``Life With Louie,'' an Emmy-award-winning cartoon show that draws on comic Louie Anderson's childhood, would be a perfect fit at 7 p.m.

``We have a vision for the Family Channel, but not a whole new plan in place,'' she said. Not yet.

Even without that blueprint, Fox has begun work on what Loesch calls ``marketing and branding'' the channel. She said she expects to visit Family Channel headquarters in Virginia Beach soon. ILLUSTRATION: SPECULATION

Variety and MSNBC have speculated that Fox Kids Worldwide might be

trying to ``wriggle out'' of its $1.9 billion deal for Virginia

Beach-based International Family Entertainment. Fox Kids says the

deal is still on and that the buyer has been working hard to obtain

the loan to pay for the acquisition.

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