CNBC is an American business news channel owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a unit of Comcast's NBCUniversal. The network broadcasts business news and analysis programming during the morning, daytime trading day, and early-evening hours, while off-peak hours (such as weekday prime time and weekends) are filled by business-related documentaries and reality television programming, as well as occasional NBC Sports presentations. CNBC operates an accompanying financial news website, CNBC.com, which includes news articles, video and podcast content, as well as subscription-based services. CNBC's headquarters and main studios are located in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, while it also maintains a studio at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square, New York City.

CNBC was originally founded in April 1989 as the Consumer News and Business Channel, a joint venture between NBC and Cablevision. Following its 1991 bankruptcy, NBC acquired the competing Financial News Network (FNN) and merged it into CNBC, and acquired Cablevision's stake in CNBC to give it full ownership.

In addition to its U.S. operations, CNBC operates the international branches CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia, and is involved in other international affiliates via joint ventures and franchise arrangements.

In 2023, CNBC had higher total day and primetime viewership than its rival, Fox Business, but finished behind Fox in trading day viewership.

History

CNBC's roots date back to the founding in 1979 of the Satellite Program Network (SPN), which showed a low-budget mix of old movies and instructional and entertainment programs. The channel later changed its name to Tempo Television. After initially signing a letter of intent to acquire Tempo, NBC opted for a deal to lease the channel's transponder in June 1988. On this platform, and under the guidance of Tom Rogers, the channel was relaunched on April 17, 1989, as the Consumer News and Business Channel. NBC and Cablevision initially operated CNBC as a 50–50 joint venture, and it was headquartered in Fort Lee, New Jersey. Sue Herera and Scott Cohn joined CNBC at its inception.

CNBC had considerable difficulty getting cable carriage at first, as many providers were skeptical of placing it alongside the longer-established Financial News Network. By the winter of 1990, CNBC was in only 17 million homes – less than half of FNN's potential reach – despite the size of NBC, its parent.

After an accounting scandal, FNN filed for bankruptcy protection on March 2, 1991, and put itself up for sale. After a bidding war with a Dow Jones & Company–Westinghouse Broadcasting consortium, CNBC was awarded FNN by a bankruptcy judge for $154.3 million on May 21, 1991, and merged the two operations. CNBC hired around 60 of FNN's 300-person workforce. Bill Griffeth and Joe Kernen, who are still with the channel, joined CNBC at that time. Other former FNN's workforce were hired by Bloomberg Television. The deal increased the distribution of the network to over 40 million homes. Cablevision sold its 49.5% stake in CNBC to NBC upon completion of the deal.

Roger Ailes was hired as the president of CNBC in August 1993, tasked by NBC CEO Bob Wright with turning around the struggling network. Ailes resigned in January 1996 due to disagreements with management including the decision by NBC management to form a joint venture with Microsoft that included the rebrand of "America's Talking" as MSNBC. Under the leadership of Ailes, annual revenue at CNBC rose from $43 million to $110 million.

In June 1995, CNBC launched the Hong Kong-based CNBC Asia, and CNBC Europe, headquartered in London, in March 1996.

In December 1997, CNBC formed a strategic alliance with Dow Jones, including content sharing with Dow Jones Newswires, The Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, and Barron's and the rebranding of the channel as "a service of NBC and Dow Jones". As part of the agreement, Dow Jones merged their competing business news channels—London-based European Business News and Singapore-based Asia Business News—into CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia respectively, with CNBC shutting down its Hong Kong-based operation and relocating the new CNBC Asia to ABN's Singapore studios.

During the late 1990s and early 2000s, CNBC's ratings increased sharply along with the stock market, often beating those of CNN during market hours. The highest daytime viewership of the network in 2000 was 343,000.

However, after the burst of the dot-com bubble, CNBC's viewing figures declined in tandem. In 2002, CNBC's ratings fell 44% and were down another 5% in 2003. The network's ratings steadily fell until bottoming in Q1 2005, with an average viewership of 134,000 during the day.

From 2001 to 2006, the CNBC website was operated by MSN.

In August 2003, CNBC signed a deal to provide weather content from AccuWeather.

In October 2003, CNBC moved its world headquarters from Fort Lee (which became the new home of Telemundo flagship station WNJU) to a new digital video production studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey.

NBC Universal reacquired full control of loss-making CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia from Dow Jones at the end of 2005. The licensing agreement between Dow and CNBC U.S. remained intact, until it expired in 2012.

CNBC reported annual revenues of $510 million in 2006. In September 2006, CNBC launched the FTSE CNBC Global 300 stock market index in conjunction with FTSE Group. The index includes the fifteen largest companies from each of the sectors of the Industry Classification Benchmark as well as the thirty largest companies from emerging markets. Profits at CNBC exceeded $333 million in 2007, making CNBC the second most profitable of NBC Universal's thirteen cable channels in the United States, behind only the USA Network. Ratings hit an all-time high in 2007.

CNBC Africa was launched on June 1, 2007. On October 22, 2007, CNBC introduced the "CNBC Investor Network", a network of webcams stationed in the trading rooms of various independent financial institutions across the United States, allowing traders to be interviewed instantaneously as news breaks. In December 2007, CNBC formed a content partnership with Yahoo! Finance.

In January 2008, CNBC formed a content partnership with The New York Times, which was seen as an attempt by both parties to take on increased competition from News Corporation. In May 2008, CNBC formed a content partnership with AOL.

Average daytime viewership (6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.) reached a seven-year high of 310,000 viewers in the first quarter of 2008. Ratings plummeted in 2009 as the network aired bad economic news resulting from the Great Recession. In January 2010, the launch of the Korean language channel SBS-CNBC marked the fifteenth CNBC-branded channel worldwide. In July 2010, BT signed a five-year contract with CNBC Europe to distribute content from its London headquarters to sister sites in Europe and the US.

In 2011, CNBC won an award at the International Broadcasting Convention for its CNBC 4D: Interactive motion tracking that allows CNBC presenters to interact with 3D graphics, using technology from Unreel, Brainstorm, Motion Analysis. In June 2012, CNBC expanded its partnership with Yahoo! Finance in an effort to reach more online viewers. That month, CNBC.com had 6.5 million unique visitors in the United States while Yahoo! Finance had 37.5 million.

In 2013, host Maria Bartiromo left CNBC for Fox Business in part because Fox offered her $5–6 million per year compared to the $4 million per year that she made at CNBC. Also that year, CNBC took over production of the popular public television program Nightly Business Report from NBR Worldwide, a subsidiary of Atalaya Global Management.

On January 6, 2015, CNBC changed the way it calculates ratings, switching from Nielsen ratings to a system by Cogent Research to calculate the viewership of its business day programming by surveying financial advisers and investors, with the goal of providing a more accurate measurement of the network's out-of-home viewership; Nielsen is still used to track the viewership of its entertainment programming.

In October 2015, a Republican Party candidates debate hosted by CNBC was seen by 14 million viewers—the highest viewership of a CNBC program to-date.

On January 10, 2016, CNBC announced a new partnership with Indonesian broadcaster Trans Media to form CNBC Indonesia.

By 2017, Fox Business had overtaken CNBC as the most watched daytime business news network.

CNBC's online video operations generated an all-time high of 1.92 billion total digital video starts across platforms in 2020.

In 2020, CNBC hired former Fox News Channel anchor Shepard Smith to host a new evening newscast on the channel, The News with Shepard Smith, which premiered that September. It was positioned as an objective, "fact-based" national newscast.

In September 2021, CNBC signed a new multi-platform deal with Jim Cramer; in addition to his existing television roles, the agreement includes the co-development of live events and digital content through his company Cramer Media (replacing his previous arrangement with TheStreet, which Cramer had co-founded, and sold to The Arena Group in 2019), including a direct-to-consumer subscription service. In January 2022, the subscription service launched as the "CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer", which includes commentaries, stock picks, and monthly online meetings. The service operates alongside another CNBC subscription service, "CNBC Pro", which similarly provides exclusive content and over-the-top streaming of CNBC's networks.

In August 2022, Mark Hoffman stepped down as president of CNBC after 17 years at the network, being succeeded by NBCUniversal president of global advertising and partnerships KC Sullivan. Under Sullivan, the network began to refocus its programming to broaden appeal to its core business audience, including a promise of more business-related documentaries in primetime, and cancelling the low-rated The News with Shepard Smith in November 2022 in favor of the new financial news program Last Call with Brian Sullivan, which premiered in January 2023.

On December 11, 2023, CNBC underwent a major rebranding, updating its logo for the first time since 1996 (adopting the updated NBC peacock and corporate typeface introduced a year prior), and revamping its on-air graphics with a simpler flat design. The two-tiered stock ticker CNBC had historically used was replaced with a single scroll, with major indices now displayed in a strip below the stock ticker.

Physical stores

CNBC has a licensing partnership with Paradies Lagardère to operate retail locations in United States airports branded as CNBC News, CNBC Express, and CNBC SmartShop. The stores sell CNBC-branded merchandise as well as snacks and drinks.

Criticism

CNBC has been criticized for allegedly amplifying bull and bear markets, particularly in the run-up to the dot-com bubble and the subprime mortgage crisis a decade later. In response to these criticisms, CNBC anchors have pointed to the size of the market and noted that influencing it is "a little out of our reach".

Jon Stewart on Comedy Central's The Daily Show has been a vocal critic of CNBC and some of its personalities, beginning after comments were made by Rick Santelli. Despite the lack of direct comments by the network, several personalities have defended their predictions and comments.

CNBC was accused by the Obama administration of "cable chatter"—the excessive and sometimes brutal discussion on a particular topic, often one-sided.

Performance of Jim Cramer's stock picks

Regarding CNBC's Mad Money host Jim Cramer, an August 20, 2007, article in Barron's stated that "his picks haven't beaten the market. Over the past two years, viewers holding Cramer's stocks would be up 12% while the Dow rose 22% and the S&P 500 16%."

High definition

On October 10, 2007, CNBC HD, a 1080i high-definition television simulcast of CNBC, was launched, first on DirecTV.

On October 13, 2014, coincidentally the 11th anniversary of CNBC's relocation to its current facilities in Englewood Cliffs, NJ, CNBC switched to a full 16:9 letterbox presentation, in line with CNBC Asia and CNBC Europe.

Gallery

Programming

Current notable programming (as of March 2024)

• Closing Bell: Scott Wapner
• Closing Bell Overtime: Morgan Brennan, Jon Fortt
• Fast Money: Melissa Lee (host), Guy Adami, Tim Seymour, and Karen Finerman (panelists)
• Fast Money Halftime Report: Scott Wapner
• Last Call: Brian Sullivan
• Mad Money: Jim Cramer
• Money Movers: : Carl Quintanilla and Sara Eisen
• Power Lunch: Kelly Evans and Tyler Mathisen
• Squawk Box: Joe Kernen, Rebecca Quick, and Andrew Ross Sorkin
• Squawk on the Street: Carl Quintanilla, David Faber, Sara Eisen, and Jim Cramer
• Street Signs: Julianna Tatelbaum (produced by CNBC Europe)
• The Exchange: Kelly Evans
• Worldwide Exchange: Frank Holland

Non-business-programming, including Reality television

• American Greed
• Blue Collar Millionaires
• Business Nation, anchored by award-winning journalist David Faber. Each edition of the program covers three stories; a mixture of profiles, investigative pieces and features. The format of the show is structured similarly to HBO's Real Sports.
• Cleveland Hustles
• CNBC on Assignment (for example, The Age of Wal-Mart)
• Cover to Cover
• Dateline (aired during the overnight hours on Tuesday through Saturday)
• Jay Leno's Garage
• Restaurant Startup
• Secret Lives of the Super Rich
• Staten Island Hustle, a revival of former NBC game show Deal or No Deal
• The Car Chasers
• The News with Shepard Smith - described as being "non-partisan" and "fact-based".
• The Partner
• The Profit
• The Suze Orman Show
• Trash Inc: The Secret Life of Garbage (2010)
• Treasure Detectives
• West Texas Investors Club

Sports

CNBC occasionally serves as an outlet for NBC Sports programming. Mainly, this has occurred on weekends, especially the afternoon, and its coverage is purposefully limited away from any part of the American trading day on weekdays.

Consistent programming includes the Premier League and the Olympics.

Generally, during weekdays CNBC airs coverage from 5-8PM ET, following business coverage. During weekends, CNBC carries much more extensive sports coverage.

History

AMA Supercross

In 2022, ten AMA Supercross Championship races aired on CNBC.

College football

In 2016 and 2017, CNBC aired The Game, the annual college football game between Harvard University and Yale University as part of NBC Sports' Ivy League television contract. In 2022, CNBC is scheduled to air the first ever HBCU New York City Football Classic between Howard University and Morehead State University.

Cycling

In 2015, CNBC aired portions of the 2015 UCI Road Cycling World Championships.

In 2020, CNBC aired Stage 14 and Stage 15 of the Tour de France.

In 2022, CNBC aired stage 8 of the Paris–Nice.

In 2022, CNBC will air portions of the Women's Tour de France.

Formula 1

In 2016, CNBC aired the Russian Grand Prix.

Golf

In 2001, CNBC began a four-year deal to televise events from the Senior PGA Tour, either live or tape delayed, with early-round coverage broadcast on cable feeds of Pax. CNBC president Bill Bolster stated that the decision was meant to help reduce CNBC's reliance on paid programming on weekends. PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem also felt that golf and business audiences were "extremely compatible" with each other.

In 2019 and 2021, CNBC aired coverage of the final two days of the Amundi Evian Championship, as part of the LPGA Tour. It will do the same in 2022.

Horse racing

In 2012, CNBC aired the Toyota Blue Grass Stakes and the Arkansas Derby.

In 2021, CNBC aired portions of the Royal Ascot and Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series.

In 2022, CNBC aired the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes from Gulfstream and the Grade 2 San Felipe Stakes from Santa Anita, as part of the Road to the Kentucky Derby.

IMSA

IndyCar

In 2016 and 2017, CNBC aired IndyCar races from Mid-Ohio. In 2017, CNBC also aired the IndyCar race from Toronto.

Major League Baseball

Beginning with the 1997 World Series, NBC would utilize CNBC for their post-game analysis programming.

NASCAR

In 2016, CNBC broadcast several NASCAR races (as part of the NASCAR on NBC package) due to scheduling conflicts with other NBCUniversal channels during the 2016 Summer Olympics.

In 2021, CNBC aired the NASCAR Xfinity Series race from Watkins Glen.

In 2020, the 2020 YellaWood 500 was bumped to CNBC after the race ran long and it interfered with other programming

On August 28, 2022, due to a rain out the previous night, CNBC aired the 2022 Coke Zero Sugar 400 at 10AM ET. The race was originally intended to be shown on NBC in primetime.

National Basketball Association

During the NBA Finals, additional coverage would be immediately available on CNBC, in which the panelists provided an additional half-hour of in-depth game discussions, after the NBC broadcast network's coverage concluded.

National Hockey League

Beginning in the 2011–12 season, CNBC showed coverage of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup playoffs, produced as part of the NHL on NBC package.

Olympics coverage

Beginning in 2000, CNBC has carried portions of NBC's coverage of the Olympic Games outside of business day hours. The frequent delegation of curling coverage to CNBC during the 2010 Winter Olympics helped the sport gain a cult following among the business community.

Generally, during weekdays CNBC airs coverage from 5-8PM ET, following business coverage. During weekends, CNBC carries much more extensive Olympic coverage.

Summer Olympics

2000 Summer Olympics

CNBC's 2000 Summer Olympics coverage focused heavily on boxing. Combined with MSNBC, the networks carried 176 original hours of Olympic programming.

2004 Summer Olympics

CNBC carried 111 hours of Olympic programming during the 2004 Summer Olympics. While CNBC continued its focus on Boxing on weekdays, during weekends CNBC also featured coverage of beach volleyball, soccer and taekwondo.

2008 Summer Olympics

CNBC carried 95.5 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2008 Summer Olympics. CNBC focused on Boxing during the prime time 5-8PM ET slot, but also carried softball, tennis, weightlifting, wrestling and badminton during the overnight hours.

2012 Summer Olympics

CNBC carried 73 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2012 Summer Olympics, focusing exclusively on boxing.

2016 Summer Olympics

CNBC carried 42 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2016 Summer Olympics. Coverage focused on basketball, volleyball, archery, cycling, rugby, water polo and wrestling.

2020 Summer Olympics

CNBC carried 124.5 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2020 Summer Olympics. Coverage focused on diving, beach volleyball, skateboarding, rowing, canoeing, archery, water polo and rugby.

Winter Olympics

2002 Winter Olympics

CNBC used the same format as the 2000 Summer Olympics for the 2002 Winter Olympics, however instead of focusing on Boxing, the network focused on Hockey. CNBC and MSNBC combined for 207 hours of programming.

2006 Winter Olympics

CNBC carried 61 hours of Olympic programming during the 2006 Winter Olympics. CNBC focused on curling during weekdays and hockey during weekends.

2010 Winter Olympics

CNBC carried 100.5 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2010 Winter Olympics. CNBC mainly focused on curling, but also carried coverage of Ice Hockey and biathlon.

2014 Winter Olympics

CNBC carried 36 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2014 Winter Olympics, focusing exclusively on curling.

2018 Winter Olympics

CNBC carried 46 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2018 Winter Olympics. Coverage focused on hockey and curling.

2022 Winter Olympics

CNBC carried 80 hours of Olympic coverage during the 2022 Winter Olympics. Coverage focused primarily on curling and ice hockey.

Premier Lacrosse League

Because of a NASCAR delay, the 2021 Premier Lacrosse League All-Star Game aired on CNBC.

Rugby

CNBC currently airs matches from Six Nations Championship Rugby, both live and on tape delay.

Soccer

CNBC has participated in NBC's Championship Sunday effort to broadcast all matches on the final day of the Premier League soccer season.

In the past, CNBC has served as an alternate home for Premier League coverage.

During the 2020-21 FA Women's Super League season, CNBC aired 10 matches.

USFL

In 2023, during the first quarter of a game between the New Orleans Breakers and the Memphis Showboats, lightning strikes in the Memphis area forced a weather delay which lasted 3 hours. Due to local and primetime programming coming up on NBC, NBC and the USFL announced that the game would resume on CNBC.

Notable former programming

Weekly, weekend and other programming

• American Le Mans Series races (inaugural 1999 season only, as part of agreement with NBC Sports)
• Champions Tour golf (moved to Golf Channel)
• CNET
• DLife: Your Diabetes Show (2005–2013, using weekend paid programming time)
• Louis Rukeyser's Wall Street (ended its run on December 31, 2004, at Louis Rukeyser's request due to illness)
• Market Watch
• Market Week with Maria Bartiromo (renamed After Hours with Maria Bartiromo and then Special Report with Maria Bartiromo—cancelled in 2004)
• National Geographic Explorer (moved to MSNBC and then to the National Geographic Channel)
• Nightly Business Report, a 30-minute weeknight business newscast hosted by Sue Herera and Bill Griffeth and distributed to U.S. public television stations. Launched in 1979, CNBC assumed production of the series in 2013 and ended production in December 2019.
• On the Money - originally launched in 1970 as The Wall Street Journal Report, ended production in December 2019
• Real Personal
• Squawk Alley
• TechCheck
• The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch
• The Charles Grodin Show (moved to MSNBC in 1998)
• The Dick Cavett Show
• The McLaughlin Group
• The Suze Orman Show
• Tim Russert
• Tom Snyder
• Topic [A] with Tina Brown
• Ushuaia
• Weekend Squawk Box

Non-business programming

• 1 vs. 100
• Deal or No Deal
• Dennis Miller
• Late Night with Conan O'Brien
• The Apprentice
  • The Apprentice: Martha Stewart

See also

• CNBC Ticker
• List of CNBC personalities

References

External links

• Official website
• CNBC Internet Archive