CNBC Europe

CNBC Europe is the pan-European sister station of CNBC in the United States of America. The network is owned and operated by NBC Universal and headquartered in London, where it shares the Adrian Smith-designed 10 Fleet Place building in Blackfriars, with Dow Jones.  CNBC is the most viewed pan-European financial TV channel  the reaching well over 100 million households across the continent.

In The Beginning

CNBC Europe began broadcasts in March 1996, as a wholly owned subsidiary of NBC. On 9th December 1997, the channel announced that it would be merging with the already long running, and generally successful Dow Jones news channel in Europe, European Business News, not to be mistaken with the earlier failed, European Business Channel. The merger took place in February 1998, upon which the channel then became known officially as "CNBC Europe - A Service of NBC and Dow Jones".  The merger took place broadly at the same time as a similar deal taking place in Asia between Dow Jones' Asia Business News and CNBC Asia.

Into The 21st Century

CNBC Europe has leaned generally on US counterpart for its on air graphical look in its early days, however in June 2003, it revamped a number of its programmes, taking many of them away from the formats used in the United States. CNBC Europe re-launched its on-air image in September 2004, but again, instead of adapting CNBC US' title sequences for programmes, the network designed all of its title sequences itself from scratch although still using the music adopted by the US channel in September 2003.

Growth & Change

In July 2005, NBC Universal announced that it would be acquiring the Dow Jones stake in CNBC Europe, subject to required regulatory clearances, and as like when the channel merged with Dow Jones, the process ran alongside similar goings-on in the Asia Pacific Region with CNBC Asia. On 30 December 2005, CNBC Europe became a wholly owned subsidiary of NBC Universal, however Dow Jones continues to provide content to the channel. On 1 January 2006, in line with this, the channel dropped the "A Service of NBC Universal and Dow Jones" tagline.

On 18 September 2006, CNBC Europe debuted a new graphics package, which unlike in past rebrands, the network reverted to a similar style to that used by its U.S. counterpart (first seen in the United States on 19 December 2005). Like CNBC Asia (which debuted a new graphics package similar to CNBC U.S. and Europe on 30 October 2006), it elected to keep the previous theme music (CNBC Asia did so until March 2007). In addition, CNBC Europe also elected to keep its September 2004 opening titles for most programmes.

The channel adopted a new schedule on 26 March 2007 which included a new pan-regional programme, Capital Connection. New title sequences were given to Power Lunch Europe and Europe Tonight to coincide with changes to the form and content of those programmes, but unlike CNBC Asia, no other changes were made to the channel's on air look on this date (although Capital Connection uses CNBC Asia's new graphics as it is produced by that channel).

On 7 January 2008, the channel unveiled a revamped studio and new "lower thirds". The lower-third style is distinct to CNBC Europe, but has adopted some elements of the CNBC US style.

On 29 September 2008, the channel dropped "Europe" from its on-screen name, returning to the CNBC brand it had previously used for a spell in the 1990s. This positioned the station in-line with its US and Asian counterparts, which are also referred to simply as CNBC. Some minor on-screen changes were introduced to coincide with the rebrand.

On 1 December 2008, the channel relaunched its flagship programme Squawk Box Europe, with a new look not derived from CNBC US at all. A third line was added to the ticker detailing general news stories, and the (non-business) News Updates, which had been dropped some years previously, returned, along with a similar segment used in the US promoting the website, CNBC.com News Now.

Exclusively to Britain & Ireland

On 15 December 2008, the channel announced that long running show Power Lunch Europe would be removed on a temporary basis and be replaced, in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland only, with a 12-week run of Strictly Money, a new programme focussing specifically on UK issues. This marks the creation of a new UK/Ireland opt-out for CNBC Europe.  Strictly Money has now broadcast well past its 12 week run and is now a permanently scheduled programme.