CNBC (an abbreviation for the Consumer News and Business Channel, its official name until 1991) is a group of cable and satellitetelevisionBusiness news channels from the U.S., owned and operated by NBC Universal. CNBC and its international spinoffs cover business headlines and provide live coverage of financial markets.
Contents
1History of CNBC U.S.
1.1Programming
1.1.1Present Shows
1.1.2Past shows
1.2Personalities
1.2.1Present Personalities
1.2.1.1Anchors, Reporters, and Hosts
1.2.1.1.1Business Day
1.2.1.1.2Primetime and Weekends
1.2.1.2Contributors
1.2.2Past Personalities
1.3Ratings
1.4CNBC US Taglines
1.5Trivia
1.6Logos
2CNBC international channels
3CNBC Graphics
3.1Screenshots
3.2How to read the screen
4CNBC.com
4.1CNBCplus
4.2"Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge"
5Contest "Multiple Accounts" Controversy
6List of CNBC channels
7See also
8External links
History of CNBC U.S.
The original CNBC channel was launched in Fort Lee, New Jersey, on April 17, 1989. Soon after, it merged in 1991 with the Financial News Network (FNN), and the name "Consumer News and Business Channel" was dropped. Sue Herera is an original anchor at CNBC, and remains on the air co-hosting Power Lunch. Scott Cohn is an original reporter at CNBC, and remains on the air as Senior Correspondent. Some reporters from FNN joined CNBC, like Ron Insana, Bill Griffeth and Joe Kernen. At first, the network's business programming was branded "CNBC/FNN," but that was dropped before the mid-90's.
CNBC began to grow during the 90's, taking over London based EBN (European Business News) in 1998, while ratings grew on the U.S. channel until the new millennium's dot-com bubble burst in 2000.
Today, CNBC provides business news programming from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m., Eastern Time, while broadcasting talk shows, investigative reports, documentaries, infomercials, and other programs during the evening and early morning. A rolling ticker provides real-time updates on share prices on the NYSE, NASDAQ, and AMEX, as well as market indices, news summaries, and weather updates by NBC Weather Plus. A rotating, top band of the screen rotates provides real-time updates on index and commodity prices from world markets.
CNBC is the only NBC network whose abbreviation, while containing NBC, stands for another name: the Consumer News and Business Channel. The moniker was simply shortened to CNBC when the former was dropped. NBC could also be used for its parent company, NBC Universal.
Programming
Present Shows
CNBC provides a variety of programs throughout the business day presenting reports on U.S. businesses, updates of stock market indices and commodities prices, interviews with CEOs and business leaders, and commentary from many investment professionals. The following is the usual "business day" (term used by CNBC hosts and announcers) lineup (as of January 2007, all times Eastern):
Currently in primetime, the network re-airs the NBC programs The Apprentice, Deal or No Deal and 1 vs. 100 along with its own CNBC Prime, Mike on the Money, and CNBC produced documentaries.
On January 24, 2007, the network launched its long-anticipated monthly newsmagazine called Business Nation, which is anchored by David Faber. According to the Washington Post, the program "will have three stories a month, a mixture of profiles, investigative pieces and features". The format of the newsmagazine is structured similarly to HBO's Real Sports. [3]
CNBC's breakout hit among its original series is Mad Money. Hosted by money manager Jim Cramer, the hour-long show gives stock advice to viewers who call in at 1-800-743-CNBC(2622). The show also has a popular segment called "The Lightning Round".
Karen Gibbs (was previously a co-host of the now-defunct PBS program, Wall $treet Week from 2002-2005, and before that, was a business correspondent for Fox News Channel from 1996-2002)
Alexis Glick (soon-to-be Director of Business News for Fox News Channel)
CNBC has had a difficult time as of late attracting viewers, although viewership is significantly up from the 2005 bottom. There is a fairly clear correlation between the markets' performance and CNBC's viewership.
During the late '90s and early 2000s, CNBC's ratings were exploding along with the market. In fact, CNBC often beat CNN during the daytime. However, the market took a tumble in 2001 and along went CNBC's ratings. In 2001, daytime viewership at the network peaked at 330,000, right before the peak of the Nasdaq. The network's ratings steadily fell quarter after quarter, year after year, until bottoming in Q2 2005, with an average viewership of 134,000 during the day. From the bottom, the network, along with the markets, have rebounded significantly -- daytime viewership now stands at 211,000 (as of mid-2006). Even though that pales in comparison to what Fox News and CNN draw in today, it is still a very healthy 57% increase in viewership within the span of 1 year. [5] Despite the viewership slump since the turn of the decade, CNBC is extremely profitable: average revenues top $510 million [6] while profits for the network exceed $250 million per year, making CNBC a cash cow for NBC Universal and its parent company, General Electric. [7]
While daytime viewership has held up relatively well, primetime viewership is still relatively weak and the network continues to try and rejuvenate their primetime lineup. Their newest attempt to attract more viewers is by introducing a "Checkerboard" programming approach. The network will put in various programming throughout the week that would interest viewers, including documentaries, town-hall style discussions and more. [8]
It is important to note that much of CNBC's viewership, particularly during the daytime, is done "out of home", something that traditionally is not measured by Nielsen ratings. As a result, it would be fair to say that the network's true viewership is considerably higher than what is reported.
CNBC US Taglines
"America's Business Channel" (secondary) (2005 or earlier - )
"First in Business Worldwide" (primary) (June 12, 2006 - )
"The World Leader in Business News" (2004 - June 11, 2006)
"First in Business, First in Talk" (1995) (Video:[10])
Trivia
When CNBC first aired in 1989 until approx. 1991, the original CNBC Ticker only had one band, displaying NYSE stocks. After a 20 minute period when the ticker was off-air one day, as announced by anchor Ted David, did CNBC finally decide to include the NASDAQ in a new format at the time, creating the two-band system we all know today. (Verified during CNBC's 10-year anniversary documentary.)
Also verified during the documentary was that CNBC had another ticker format, mainly a font variation on the Ticker, for a short time before the 1995-1997 photo on this page. (The 1995 date is too recent for that ticker's format. 1993 would be much more accurate, but perhaps not exact.)
During special events (ex. DJIA passed 6000, 7000, etc. or other extremely impactful event), the CNBC Ticker would show mutual funds on the NYSE band while the NASDAQ kept scrolling its symbols. (Mutual funds last shown perhaps when the Dow passed 10000.) Mutual funds no longer show on the CNBC Ticker.
Prior to December 2005, a stack in the corner of the screen (known as "The Bug") displayed index and commodity prices, however this information has now been moved to a bar along the top of the screen.
CNBC's main voice-over announcer is Jim Birdsall, who has also worked for NFL Films.
On December 19, 2005, CNBC unveiled a new on-air look, replacing that which had been used since October 2003. This included a new look for all the graphics, new logos for all business day programs, and the aforementioned move of the information formerly contained in the stack to the top of the screen. The ticker now shows full company names (and full commodity names used in the Commodity Summary, which runs at the 1s of each hour) instead of just ticker symbols.
On June 12, 2006, CNBC brought back its "First in Business Worldwide" tagline, which was originally used in the late 1990s; this phrase replaced "The World Leader in Business News", which had been in-place for at least several months.
On September 6, 2006, CNBC unveiled a revamped bug, which now has a similar resemblance to that of CNBC Europe. On the same day, the network launched a slightly modified ticker with a narrower font (to allow more quotes to stream by within a period of time). See the photo in the "CNBC Graphics" section below for more.
On September 18, 2006, CNBC's Worldwide Exchange program unveiled the "FTSE CNBC Global 300 Index". As the name suggests, it is an index of 300 global corporations, through 18 subsectors in conjunction with London's FTSE. It is supposed to aggregate the major stock market movements from the "open in Asia to the close in the US." It is updated every 15 seconds.
On November 15, 2006, CNBC's logo bug was changed to color revealing the rainbow's peacock's normal NBC colors. The ticker was also revamped that day.
On November 28, 2006, the new smaller CNBC color bug (similar to the one used in the revamped ticker) began to show up on CNBC's non-business related primetime programming (where the ticker is not shown, except Mad Money and Fast Money), replacing the much bigger shadow gray bug.
On December 19, 2006, exactly one year after its relaunch, CNBC revamped its on-air graphics package, replacing the graphics (except on the market charts) that were previously used from 12/19/2005-12/18/2006.
In January, 2007, CNBC launched it's new bureau which is located at KNTV NBC 11 studios in San Jose, CA called "CNBC Silicon Valley". Most business & tech reporters correspond at CNBC Silicon Valley. Occasionally KNTV reporters Scott Budman and Scott McGrew will also correspond from CNBC.
On February 27, 2007, when the Dow Jones Industrial Average had its 7th largest loss ever, CNBC stayed on the story. [12] Also, CNBC's news ticker at the bottom of screen returned during a re-airing of Deal or No Deal showing updates of the loss as well as the Nasdaq's biggest loss since September 17, 2001. It also reminded viewers to go to CNBC.com to get updates on the markets in Asia provided by CNBC Asia. The 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. ET airings of The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch were pre-empted to make way for re-airings of On The Money and Fast Money, respectively. Both shows covered the 400-point loss of the DJIA. The network recorded its best ratings week since the market crash after 9/11, with Kudlow & Co., Mad Money, and Fast Money recording their best ratings ever (in the coveted 25-54 demographic). [13]
On March 1, 2007, CNBC's Squawk on the Street and Closing Bell both started using the new style countdown clock (shown in minutes:seconds:tenths-of-a-second format) on the graphics' lower-third of the screen. The countdown clock is used for the "Opening Bell Countdown" segment on Squawk on the Street, and for the "Closing Countdown" segment on Closing Bell.
On March 19, 2007, Squawk Box was knocked off the air for 18 minutes due to "overwhelming technical issues". After an extended commercial break at 7:43 a.m ET, the network simulcast MSNBC's Imus in the Morning before returning to the air at 8 a.m ET. Host Joe Kernen noted that in the 11 years of him doing the show, "this has never ever happened".
Logos
CNBC logo from 1989 to 1992.
Planned CNBC/FNN logo from 1991 before the name was dropped.
CNBC logo from 1992 to 1995.
CNBC logo from 1995 to 1996.
The current CNBC peacock logo from 1996 to present.
CNBC international channels
CNBC has operated international versions of its channel since 1995, when CNBC Asia originally launched. CNBC Europe followed in 1996. On December 9, 1997, Dow Jones & Company and NBC announced the merger of their international business news channels. This resulted in a merger of CNBC Europe with Dow Jones' European Business News, and likewise of CNBC Asia with Asia Business News. From then (until January 2006) the international CNBC services carried the tagline "A Service of NBC (Universal) and Dow Jones" (or depending on other local partners, a variation of this tagline). Correspondents from Dow Jones Newswires contribute to the channels. CNBC Europe is headquartered in London, and CNBC Asia is headquartered in Singapore.
Besides CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia, the network also operates a number of local business news channels in association with other companies. These channels include Class CNBC in Italy, CNBC-e in Turkey, CNBC Arabiya in the UAE, Nikkei CNBC in Japan, CNBC-TV18 and CNBC Awaaz in India, and CNBC Pakistan in Pakistan. In Australia, CNBC is called CNBC Australia and carried programs from both the Asian, European and American networks.
CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia are rebranded in some parts of the world with tickers containing local financial information. This includes CNBC Nordic, CNBC Singapore, CNBC Hong Kong and CNBC Australia.
In Central America and the Caribbean, CNBC Latin America retransmits live programs from CNBC and CNBC World.
In Canada, CNBC can be seen with most of the programming identical to the US counterpart. However, due to Canadian programming rights, the 9pm slot which shows television programming such as the Olympic Games, Deal Or No Deal, The Apprentice, 1 vs. 100 and Heads Up Poker are replaced by CNBC World programming. However, documentaries are shown in Canada. This had the making of a major problem, as a highlight episode of The Apprentice 5 that aired April 23, 2006, was assumed to not be available anywhere for Canadians due to these blackouts. While the first airing at 9:00pm ET was blacked out, the second airing at 12:00am ET was accidentally shown. Blackouts on episodes that originally air on NBC and Global are likely to continue. However, occasionally, the television shows are shown and are not blacked out. This could be due to a mistake in not blacking out the programming.
On 31 December2005, the sale by Dow Jones of its interests in the international CNBC channels took effect. From 1 January2006, the "A Service of NBC Universal and Dow Jones" tagline was removed from the international CNBC channels, in line with this.
CNBC is also planning another international spinoff, CNBC Africa. With roughly $600 million spent on advertising in South Africa alone, the network sees great potential in grabbing a potential share of that pot. Initially, CNBC Africa will have bureaus in Botswana, Tanzania, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa and will produce 9 hours local programming per business day. The network will be launched June2007. [14]
CNBC Graphics
CNBC is well known today for its flashy and somewhat "over-the-top" graphics package, complete with accompying animations and animation-sounds. Previous graphics packages put together by the network since the early 90's have gradually increased the "wow" factor -- likely in order to catch a casual viewer's eye, as cable news competition has increased dramatically since the late 80's (when the network was launched).
