How Can Advisors Become A Regular On Financial TV; What Each The Big Three TV Outlets Are Looking For

Client Communications

Advisor Dashboard

There are three main channels for financial television that reach the retail investing public: CNBC, Fox Business and Bloomberg.  Each has some conditions about its guests.  Here is a breakdown of what each station is looking for from an advisor and how you might approach becoming a guest:

CNBC

• Generally has stock pickers on who are willing to talk about three stock ideas as well as overall market commentary and items in the news that day.
• They have a soft cutoff of guests having $500 million AUM to appear.  CNBC is willing, particularly during this month of August, to take guests that may not have the usual AUM if they have been in the print media on a topic in the news or can talk on special series they have.  For example, this month they covered the U.S. drought in-depth for a day and also the oil industry.
• Most recently, they have also been asking for dates of birth and social security numbers for new guests that have not been on CNBC before.  They like to perform some due diligence before having a new guest.

Bloomberg

• Bloomberg tends have a higher threshold of assets under management for its guests, usually $1 billion in AUM.  
• They are looking for big shops and big names as guests.
• They are totally news-driven and rarely will book guests out more than a couple of days unless the guest is a “name.”

Fox Business

• Generally has stock pickers on willing to talk about 3 stock ideas as well as overall markets commentary and items in the news that day.
• Also have a soft $500 million AUM requirement to be a guest.  There are exceptions if you have a timely or well selling book for instance.

Watch the shows and take note of guests and topics and news they cover. TV generally follows print stories. 

You can call the call the main number and ask for the guest booker for a particular show.  Once you are connected, you have about 15 seconds to pitch yourself --  your credentials, topics you can talk about and why it’s timely and relevant.

They will likely ask you to put this into an email to send it to them.

I'd strongly suggest having some media rehearsal and training prior to approaching the media in general and definitely prior to being on TV. 

Start with your local TV station first. For example News 12 on Long Island has some local financial coverage seen around the country.

Regardless of what your opinion is of financial TV, it does have a viewership in the hundreds of thousands and it does give a guest exposure through a credible platform. IT raises the stature of an advisor and promotes brand and company awareness.  It is a powerful medium that is deserving of your consideration and time to cultivate and master.