This article is about the business news channel in the United States. For its sister general news channel, seeMS NOW. For all international CNBC channels, seeList of CNBC channels. For other uses, seeCNBC (disambiguation).
TheConsumer News and Business Channel (CNBC) is an Americanbusiness news channel owned byVersant. The network broadcasts live business news and analysis programming during the morning,daytimebusiness day, and early-evening hours, with the remaining hours (such as weekdayprime time and weekends) filled by business-relateddocumentaries andreality television programming, as well as occasional sports presentations fromUSA Sports (previously served byNBC Sports). CNBC operates an accompanying financial news website, CNBC.com, which includes news articles, video andpodcast content, as well as subscription-based services. CNBC's headquarters and main studios are located inEnglewood Cliffs, New Jersey, while it also maintains a studio at theNasdaq MarketSite inTimes Square, New York City.
CNBC's roots date back to the founding of theSatellite Program Network (SPN) on July 30, 1979, 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,[1]NBC opted for a deal to lease the channel'stransponder in June 1988.[2] On this platform, and under the guidance ofTom Rogers, the channel was relaunched on April 17, 1989, as theConsumer News and Business Channel, withNeil Cavuto anchoring this first broadcast. NBC andCablevision initially operated CNBC as a 50–50joint venture,[3][4] and it was headquartered inFort Lee, New Jersey.Sue Herera and Scott Cohn joined CNBC at its inception.[5][6][7]
Following the 1991 bankruptcy of the competingFinancial News Network (FNN), NBC acquired and merged FNN into CNBC, while also acquiring Cablevision's stake in CNBC to grant it full ownership. In addition to its U.S. operations, CNBC operates theEurope andAsia branches 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 chief rival,Fox Business, but finished behind Fox in trading day viewership.[8][9][10]
CNBC had considerable difficulty getting cable carriage at first, as many providers were skeptical of placing it alongside the longer-establishedFinancial 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.[11]
After anaccounting scandal, FNN filed forbankruptcy protection on March 2, 1991, and put itself up for sale. After a bidding war with aDow 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.[12] CNBC hired around 60 of FNN's 300-person workforce, includingJoe Kernen, who is still with the channel.[13][14] Other former FNN workers were hired byBloomberg Television.[15] The deal expanded the network's distribution to over 40 million homes, thereby more than doubling its potential audience.[15] Cablevision sold its 49.5% stake in CNBC to NBC upon completion of the deal.[16] CNBC adopted many elements of FNN's on-air presentation, branding its daytime programming as "CNBC/FNN Daytime" until 1992. CNBC incorporated several features from FNN's on-air ticker into its own.
Roger Ailes was hired as the president of CNBC in August 1993,[17][18] tasked by NBC CEOBob 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 withMicrosoft that included the rebrand of "America's Talking" asMSNBC. Under the leadership of Ailes, annual revenue at CNBC rose from $43 million to $110 million.[19][20]
The CNBC logo from 1996–2023. It is based on the1986 NBC logo.
In December 1997, CNBC formed a strategic alliance with Dow Jones, including content sharing withDow Jones Newswires,The Wall Street Journal,MarketWatch, andBarron'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-basedAsia 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.[23][24][25]
During the late 1990s and early 2000s, CNBC's ratings increased sharply along with the stock market, often beating those ofCNN during market hours.[26] The highest daytime viewership of the network in 2000 was 343,000.[27]
However, following the burst of thedot-com bubble, CNBC experienced a decline in its viewing figures. In 2002, CNBC's ratings fell 44% and were down another 5% in 2003.[28] The network's ratings steadily fell until bottoming in Q1 2005, with an average viewership of 134,000 during the day.[29]
From 2001 to 2006, the CNBC website was operated byMSN.[30][31]
In August 2003, CNBC signed a deal to provide weather content fromAccuWeather.[32]
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.[35]
CNBC reported annual revenues of $510 million in 2006.[36] In September 2006, CNBC launched the FTSE CNBC Global 300stock market index in conjunction withFTSE Group. The index includes the fifteen largest companies from each of the sectors of theIndustry Classification Benchmark as well as the thirty largest companies fromemerging markets.[37] 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 theUSA Network.[38] Ratings hit an all-time high in 2007.[39][40]
CNBC Africa was launched on June 1, 2007.[41] On October 22, 2007, CNBC introduced the "CNBC Investor Network," a network ofwebcams stationed in the operating departments of various independent financial institutions across the United States, allowing traders to be interviewed instantaneously as news breaks.[42] In December 2007, CNBC formed a content partnership withYahoo! Finance.[43]
In January 2008, CNBC formed a content partnership withThe New York Times, which was seen as an attempt by both parties to take on increased competition from News Corporation.[44][45][46] In May 2008, CNBC formed a content partnership withAOL.[47]
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.[38] Ratings plummeted in 2009 as the network aired bad economic news resulting from theGreat Recession.[48] In January 2010, the launch of theKorean language channelSBS-CNBC marked the fifteenth CNBC-branded channel worldwide.[49] 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.[50]
In 2011, CNBC won an award at theInternational Broadcasting Convention for its CNBC 4D: Interactive motion tracking that allows CNBC presenters to interact with 3D graphics, using technology from Unreel, Brainstorm, and Motion Analysis.[51] In June 2012, CNBC expanded its partnership with Yahoo! Finance 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.[52]
In 2013, hostMaria Bartiromo left CNBC forFox Business in part because Fox offered her $5–6 million per year compared to the $4 million per year that she made at CNBC.[53][54][55][56] Also that year, CNBC took over production of the popular public television programNightly Business Report from NBR Worldwide, a subsidiary of Atalaya Global Management.[57]
The company publishes annual lists, including the CNBC Disruptor 50 since 2013[58] and the CNBC25 since 2014.[59]
On January 6, 2015, CNBC changed the way it calculates ratings, switching fromNielsen 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.[60]
In September 2021, CNBC signed a new multi-platform deal withJim 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 withTheStreet, which Cramer had co-founded and sold to The Arena Group in 2019), including a direct-to-consumer subscription service.[69] 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 andover-the-top streaming of CNBC's networks.[70][71]
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,[72][73] and cancelling the low-ratedThe News with Shepard Smith in November 2022 in favor of the new financial news programLast Call withBrian Sullivan, which premiered in January 2023,[74][75] and ran until July 18, 2024.[76]
On December 11, 2023, CNBC underwent a major rebranding, updating its logo for the first time since 1996 (adopting the updatedNBC logo and corporate typeface introduced a year prior in the process),[77] and revamping its on-air graphics with a simplerflat 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.[75]
In March 2024, CNBC announced plans to add its personal finance brand "Make It" to weekend programming.[78] Make It offers personal finance tips, career guidance, and other forms of advice-based content to consumers.[79] According to CNBC, Make It-branded content (which launched in 2016) forms CNBC.com’s largest vertical.[78]
In November 2024, a Brazilian affiliate known asTimes Brasil launched as CNBC's first local franchise in South America. It was founded by Douglas Tavolaro, who had originally foundedCNN Brasil.[81][82][83]
The final logo of CNBC's NBCUniversal era. It is based on the2022 NBC logo.
On November 20, 2024, NBCUniversal announced its intent to spin off most of its cable networks, including CNBC, as a new publicly traded company controlled by Comcast shareholders, later known asVersant. CNBC had largely operated autonomously from NBC News untilCesar Conde became head of theNBCUniversal News Group in 2020, after which the network began to engage in some resource sharing with the division.[84][85][86]
In 2025, CNBC launched a new subscription streaming platform known as CNBC+, which offers live and on-demand streaming of CNBC and CNBC World programming. Bundles of the service with CNBC Pro and an "all-access" tier with CNBC Investing Club are also available.[87][88][89]
Due to the spin-off, it was announced on August 18, 2025, that CNBC would undergo a rebranding to reduce its ties to the NBC brand. The channel would retain the "CNBC" name (unlike sister networkMSNBC, which underwent a more significant rebrand to "MS NOW"), but adopt a new logo excluding the NBC peacock symbol. Versant head Mark Lazarus acknowledged that CNBC would be able to keep its name since it was originally an initialism for "Consumer News and Business Channel"; Versant still had to obtain a trademark license from NBCUniversal to continue using "NBC" as part of CNBC's name.[90][91]
In October 2025, both CNBC and MSNBC began the process of formally separating themselves from NBC News, ahead of the completion of the divestment in 2026.[92][93] CNBC unveiled its new logo in December 2025, which took effect on-air on December 13; it is designed around motifs originally introduced in the 2023 rebranding (including its neon blue corporate color,right triangle icons, and its associated on-air graphics—which were maintained with the rebranding), while also including visual references to CNBC's original wordmark (including tightkerning on the "N" and "B," albeit connected by a right triangle innegative space).[91][94][95]
CNBC has a licensing partnership withParadies Lagardère to operate retail locations inUnited States airports branded as CNBC News, CNBC Express, and CNBC SmartShop. The stores sell CNBC-branded merchandise as well as snacks and drinks.[96]
The CNBC stores first launched in 2001, when the company announced plans to open as many as 100 airport shops in the United States.[97] As of 2024, CNBC airport stores continue to expand, with aPensacola International Airport location unveiled in Florida that November.[98]
CNBC has been criticized for allegedly amplifyingbull andbear markets, particularly in the run-up to thedot-com bubble and thesubprime mortgage crisis a decade later.[28][99][100] 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."[99]
Jon Stewart onComedy Central'sThe Daily Show has been a vocal critic of CNBC and some of its personalities, beginning after comments were made byRick Santelli.[101][102] Despite the lack of direct feedback from the network, several personalities have defended their predictions and comments.[103][104]
CNBC was accused by theObama administration of "cable chatter"—the excessive and sometimes brutal discussion on a particular topic, often one-sided.[105][106]
Regarding CNBC'sMad Money hostJim Cramer, a 2007 article inBarron'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%."[107]
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 withCNBC Asia andCNBC Europe.[109]
Business Nation, anchored by award-winning journalistDavid 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 toHBO'sReal Sports.[111]
CNBC occasionally serves as anoutlet forNBC Sports programming and essentially acts as an overflow feed whenUSA Network is broadcasting sports events. Mainly, this has occurred on weekends, especially in the afternoon, and sports coverage is purposefully kept away from any part of the Americantrading day on weekdays.
CNBC's Inaugural Broadcast, archived by CNBC onYouTube. The Consumer News and Business Channel launches on April 17, 1989 with then-NBC presidentBob Wright.
