CNBC

CNBC (formerly Consumer News and Business Channel) is an American basic cable business news channel. It provides business news programming on weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk shows, investigative reports, documentaries, infomercials, reality shows, and other programs at all other times. Along with Fox Business and Bloomberg Television, it is one of the three major business news channels. It also operates a website and mobile apps, whereby users can watch the channel via streaming media, and which provide some content that is only accessible to paid subscribers. CNBC content is available on demand on smart speakers including Amazon Echo devices with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and app devices with Google Assistant, and on Apple Siri voice interfaces including iPhones. Many CNBC TV shows are available as podcasts for on-demand listening. Graphics are designed by Sweden-based Magoo 3D studios.

CNBC is a division of NBCUniversal News Group, a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, which is owned by Comcast. It is headquartered in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, although many just license the CNBC name. Examples include CNBC World, CNBC Europe, CNBC Asia, Class CNBC in Italy, CNBC Indonesia in Indonesia, CNBC Arabiya in the UAE, Nikkei CNBC in Japan, CNBC TV18, CNBC Awaaz, and CNBC Baazar (A special Gujarati language channel) in India, and GNN/CNBC Pakistan in Pakistan.

History & Transactions

CNBC traces its roots to the founding in 1979 of the Satellite Program Network (SPN), showing a low-budget mix of old movies, 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.

CNBC launched CNBC Asia, headquartered in Singapore in June 1995 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". Fox merged with Dow Jones in 2007 and Fox Business later became a competitor to CNBC.

Also in December 1997, CNBC's international channels were merged into a 50-50 joint venture with their Dow Jones-owned rivals, London-based European Business News and Singapore-based Asia Business News.

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 to a new digital video production studio in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey

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