CNBC

CNBC | CityNewsNet

CNBC: Business News Channel

CNBC stands for Consumer News and Business Channel.

It is an American business news channel that provides live business news, financial market coverage, and analysis, particularly during the weekday trading hours. It's owned by NBCUniversal News Group, a subsidiary of Comcast.

Key facts about CNBC:

• Focus: Business, finance, and stock markets.

  
  

• Digital Presence: It operates a financial news website, CNBC.com, which offers news articles, video content, and a subscription service called CNBC Pro.

  
  

• International: It also has international branches like CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia.

  
  

Would you like to know the latest business headlines from CNBC or information about a specific show or market topic?

CNBC is a pivotal player in the financial media landscape. Here is a breakdown of its structure, key programming, and global reach.

CNBC: The Deep Dive

1. Ownership & Structure

• Parent Company: CNBC is owned by NBCUniversal News Group, which is a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation.

  
  

• Mission: CNBC's stated mission is to help the influential and aspirational to make astute decisions to get ahead.

  
  

• Headquarters: The main studios and global headquarters for the U.S. network are located in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. It also maintains a key studio at the Nasdaq MarketSite in Times Square, New York City.

  
  

2. Global Network

CNBC operates a significant global network, providing localized coverage for different time zones and markets.

Network	Primary Region	Headquarters	Focus
CNBC U.S.	North and South America	Englewood Cliffs, NJ	U.S. Markets, opening & closing bells
CNBC Europe	Europe, Middle East, Africa	London, U.K.	European markets, ECB, Brexit
CNBC Asia	Asia-Pacific (APAC)	Singapore	Asian markets (Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney)
CNBC World	U.S. (secondary channel)	Englewood Cliffs, NJ	Primarily re-broadcasts programming from CNBC Europe and Asia to cover global markets when the U.S. network is in prime time.

CNBC also has affiliates and joint ventures in regions like India (CNBC-TV18), Indonesia (CNBC Indonesia), and the Middle East (CNBC Arabia).

3. Key Programming & Personalities

CNBC's weekday daytime programming is structured around the U.S. trading hours, from the pre-market open to the closing bell.

Program	Time Slot (ET)	Focus	Notable Anchors/Personalities
Squawk Box	Morning (Pre-Market)	The flagship morning show featuring interviews with top CEOs, policymakers, and Wall Street figures.	Joe Kernen, Becky Quick, Andrew Ross Sorkin
Squawk on the Street	Market Open	Live coverage of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and Nasdaq opening.	Carl Quintanilla, Sara Eisen, David Faber
Halftime Report	Mid-Day (12 PM)	A debate show where a panel of investors discusses stocks and market-moving news.	Scott Wapner
Closing Bell	Market Close	A final analysis and wrap-up of the day's trading activity.	Kelly Evans, Mike Santoli
Mad Money	Evenings	Jim Cramer's popular show where he gives stock picks and answers calls from viewers.	Jim Cramer
American Greed	Prime Time/Weekends	A documentary-style series focusing on corporate crime, white-collar fraud, and Ponzi schemes.	(Narrated)

History of CNBC (including its Acquisition of its Major Rival, FNN)

That's a fascinating period of cable TV history! The story of CNBC's rise is directly tied to the fall and acquisition of its major early rival, the Financial News Network (FNN).

Here is a breakdown of CNBC's founding and the critical acquisition that solidified its dominance in business news.

🕰️ CNBC's Origin and The FNN Acquisition

1. The Precursor: Financial News Network (FNN) (1981–1991)

• Launch: FNN was the original, pioneering cable channel for business and financial news, launching in November 1981.

  
  

• Early Success: It successfully established the market for televised, continuous stock market coverage and business updates. At its height, FNN was reaching a potential audience of about 35 million homes.

  
  

2. CNBC's Founding and Early Struggles (1989)

• Launch: CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel) was launched in April 1989 as a joint venture between NBC and Cablevision.

  
  

• The Problem: CNBC faced significant difficulty in its first two years getting cable providers to carry the channel. Many providers were skeptical of putting it alongside the already established FNN. By the winter of 1990, CNBC was only in about 17 million homes, less than half of FNN's reach.

  
  

3. FNN's Collapse and The Bidding War (1990–1991)

• The Scandal: In 1990, FNN became a victim of the very type of news it covered, falling prey to a financial scandal and accounting dispute involving its chief financial officer.

  
  

• Bankruptcy: FNN filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 1991 and put itself up for sale, triggering a fierce bidding war.

  
  

• The Rivals: The bidding came down to two major parties:

  
  

  • NBC/CNBC

  • A consortium of Dow Jones & Company and Westinghouse Broadcasting (Group W)

    
    

4. The Acquisition and Consolidation (May 1991)

• The Decision: After a legal battle and multiple raised offers, a bankruptcy judge awarded FNN to NBC/CNBC for $154.3 million on May 21, 1991.

  
  

• Immediate Impact: FNN went off the air the same day, and CNBC immediately took over its satellite transponder space. This acquisition more than doubled CNBC's potential audience overnight to over 40 million homes, securing its place as the dominant business news network.

  
  

• The Merger: CNBC merged the operations and, for a transitional period until 1992, branded its daytime business programming as "CNBC/FNN Daytime." CNBC also adopted many key elements of FNN's on-air presentation, including features of its stock ticker.

  
  

Key Legacy of the Merger: The acquisition not only gave CNBC a massive audience boost but also brought over several key FNN anchors and reporters, most notably Joe Kernen, who remains a cornerstone of CNBC's morning show, Squawk Box, to this day.

CNBC's Global Expansion in the Late 1990s and the more Recent Emergence of its Key Rivals, Bloomberg Television and Fox Business Network

That's a complete picture of the business news landscape. The late 1990s were marked by CNBC's global expansion and its dominance, followed by the emergence of Bloomberg Television and Fox Business Network (FBN) as its key rivals.

CNBC's Global Expansion (Late 1990s)

After acquiring FNN in 1991, CNBC solidified its U.S. base and quickly focused on building a 24-hour global business news presence, largely driven by the boom of the Dot-com era when investor interest in the markets was at an all-time high.

• Launching International Feeds:

  
  

  • CNBC Europe was launched in March 1996, based in London.

  • CNBC Asia was launched in June 1995, initially based in Hong Kong.

    
    

• The Dow Jones Alliance (1997): This was the most critical move. CNBC formed a strategic alliance with Dow Jones & Company (publisher of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Newswires). As part of this deal:

  
  

  • Dow Jones merged its competing regional business channels—European Business News (EBN) and Asia Business News (ABN)—into CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia, respectively.

  • This effectively eliminated CNBC's primary global competitors at the time and gave CNBC access to Dow Jones' vast news gathering resources.

  • For a period, the U.S. channel was even rebranded as "a service of NBC and Dow Jones."

    
    

• Impact: This strategy ensured that as the trading day moved from Asia to Europe to the Americas, CNBC was continuously providing live, local market coverage, establishing it as the world's premier 24-hour financial news service by the turn of the millennium.

The Emergence of Key Rivals

While CNBC dominated through the early 2000s, two significant competitors arose to challenge its market position, each with a distinct audience and strategy.

1. Bloomberg Television

• Launch: Bloomberg Television launched in mid-1994.

  
  

• Strategy: Its primary audience is the professional investor and the Bloomberg Terminal subscriber.

  
  

• Differentiator: Bloomberg's programming is deeply integrated with its proprietary, real-time market data and analysis, often relying on graphics and data feeds that are essential for institutional traders. Its tone is typically more data-driven, technical, and less focused on "Main Street" investors compared to CNBC.

2. Fox Business Network (FBN)

• Launch: FBN launched relatively late in the game on October 15, 2007, just before the Global Financial Crisis hit.

  
  

• Strategy: Created by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, FBN sought to replicate the successful model of Fox News Channel by offering a different editorial viewpoint—often one seen as being more pro-business and pro-free market.

  
  

• Differentiator: FBN targets an audience it argues was underserved by the other networks, focusing on "Main Street" rather than just "Wall Street." It often features more opinion-based analysis and personalities, providing an alternative to CNBC's historically more established, center-lane style.

  
  

• Rivalry: FBN struggled for years to gain viewership, but by the mid-2010s, it began to seriously challenge and, at times, surpass CNBC in specific ratings demographics.

  
  

In summary, CNBC achieved global scale through merger and strategic alliance in the late 1990s, while its rivals, Bloomberg and FBN, came into the market with distinctive focuses: one on data professionals and the other on a different political/editorial perspective.

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