The bottom of a TV screen isn’t the only place CNBC fans will be able to follow its famous ticker.
The NBCUniversal-backed business-news outlet plans to launch a stand-alone streaming outlet, CNBC+, in the first quarter of 2025, according to two people familiar with the matter. The venue isn’t going to offer new shows and CNBC isn’t going to hire more staff for the venture, these people say, but the network will use the broadband outlet to make available a “global feed” that viewers can use to follow programming from Asia and Europe, as well as the United States, no matter where they are.
CNBC declined to elaborate on the nature of the project.
CNBC+ isn’t seen as a way to challenge Netflix or Disney+. There will be no new programs on the service that aren’t already on the cable network and its overseas counterparts and no massive ramp-up of content spend to give viewers access to movies like “Wall Street” or “The Boiler Room.” CNBC anchors like Joe Kernen won’t offer cooking tips and Sara Eisen won’t launch a book club.
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But CNBC has a devoted audience that does the bulk of its watching outside the home — in offices, on trading floors, during commutes — and executives believe they can use broadband to increase the time they spend with the outlet, a goal that has become more of a focus under the leadership of KC Sullivan, who became president of CNBC in 2022.
Disclosure of CNBC’s streaming plans shows the network charting its own course as it prepares to be spun off, along with several other cable networks from NBCUniversal. Corporate parent Comcast expects to split the bulk of its cable holdings from the NBC and Telemundo broadcast networks and the Peacock streaming service over the next 12 months.
The move will allow the cable networks, grappling with downturns in subscriptions and advertising, to use more of the revenue they generate for their own business initiatives, rather than feeding to a bigger corporate entity. That’s a strategy that has been articulated to cable employees in recent days by Mark Lazarus, the senior NBCU executive who has been named CEO of the new company.
Many TV-news entities have pursued streaming strategies in recent years, but one thing seems to hold true: there is no single way to win the market. CBS News has recently worked to tie its live-streaming service — the industry’s first — more closely to its TV efforts, with shows led by John Dickerson and Tony Dokoupil and Adriana Diaz that spur linear viewers to watch online. The company has also emulated the “whip-around” strategy of “NFL RedZone” on a new streaming show aimed at daytime news aficionados. ABC News has tapped some of its weekend “Good Morning America” anchors to bolster its “ABC News Live” streaming service.
NBCUniversal has deployed several streaming products in recent years, including the stand-alone outlet NBC News Now, and a bespoke product devoted to “Today.” Fox News Channel cultivates its fans with Fox Nation, a subscription outlet that offers the popular opinion programs from its flagship cable vehicle, but also lifestyle programs; documentaries; stand-up comedy; and even movies. After scuttling a stand-alone vehicle called CNN+, Warner Bros. Discovery has been testing a CNN live-stream on its Max service while preparing for the debut of a series of new CNN digital-content efforts.
CNBC’s streaming efforts may not be the biggest in the industry, but they are significant for the business-news mainstay, which has typically worked separately from its sister NBC news operations.
“We have for a long time had a clear view of what’s happening in the sector given the disruption of traditional revenue streams in cable,” Sullivan told Variety in a recent interview. “We are facing into that.”