Bloomberg TV plays politics

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Bloomberg TV is getting into politics.

The business news cable channel is hosting its first-ever presidential debate next week at Dartmouth College featuring the Republican candidates for the Oval Office including Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann. The debate will focus primarily on the economy.

Bloomberg, which is presenting the Oct. 11 debate in partnership with the Washington Post, has been trying to make inroads against its main competitor CNBC for several years. In June, it hired former ABC News executive Andrew Morse in part to broaden its coverage and grow its audience.

Part of that strategy is beefing up Bloomberg’s political coverage for the 2012 campaign. The network has hired former Sen. John Sununu and ABC’s Matthew Dowd to serve as political analysts. Dowd still is employed by ABC as well.

Moderating the debate will be Charlie Rose, Washington Post political reporter Karen Tumulty and Bloomberg White House correspondent Julianna Goldman.

A strong performance from the debate may help Bloomberg bolster its efforts to get better carriage from cable and satellite broadcasters. Currently, Bloomberg is in about 70 million homes while CNBC is in around 100 million. Bloomberg is in a particularly nasty fight with CNBC parent Comcast Corp. over where it is carried in relation to the placement CNBC gets.

No word on whether that will be a topic of discussion for the candidates.

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-- Joe Flint

For the Record: A previous version of this post incorrectly said John Sununu, former chief of staff for President George H.W. Bush was contributing political coverage for Bloomberg. In fact, it is Sununu’s son John, a former New Hampshire senator who has joined Bloomberg.