Howard Kurtz got his hands on the first public ratings for Fox Business Network.

Fox Business Network is averaging 8,000 viewers during daytime hours, and 20,000 in prime time. CNBC, by contrast, is drawing an average of 284,000 viewers during the day and 191,000 in prime time.

Kurtz calls the numbers a "modest improvement" over the ratings that leaked out in January: about 6,300, on average, on any given weekday.

FBN, which launched last October, was said to be in an ratings access period during which Nielsen was to determine a valid sample. With the release of these numbers it appears the data is now in the public domain and any Nielsen client will have access to them. What is not clear is if we will be getting daily ratings updates for FBN like we do for the other cable news channels.