CNBC considering financial portal
Plans underway to revamp Web site into a hub for stock trading.
By Steven Vonder Haar, Inter@ctive Week
March 15, 1999 5:16 AM PT
The CNBC cable channel, extending NBC's push for media convergence, is readying
plans to launch a revamped version of its Web site that aspires to become an online hub
for stock trading.
The financial news television network, which now uses its site primarily to promote on-air
programming, will overhaul its online offering to incorporate access to historical stock
charts and graphics along with direct links to online stock trading services, said CNBC
President Bill Bolster.
Once the site launches, CNBC will integrate references into its programming that direct
viewers to tools and services available online.
"This is the first stage of convergence," Bolster said. "We want to give viewers a site
where they can take action on what they're seeing on the TV screen."
No timetable has been set for the launch of the revamped site, although the overhaul is
expected to take effect within the next few months.
In January, NBC purchased a 9.9 percent stake in online financial data provider Telescan
and said it was in negotiations to integrate Telescan data into NBC-owned services.
Bolster last week said Telescan will be a key provider of historical stock chart information
offered on the CNBC service.
NBC driving e- commerce
The Web overhaul at CNBC reflects broader moves by NBC to build television properties
that can use programming to drive increased usage of electronic commerce.
Last week, for instance, NBC and its sister General Electric unit, GE Capital, agreed to
buy stock and warrants equivalent to 19.9 percent of ValueVision, the nation's third
largest home shopping channel.
With renegotiations pending on distribution deals with cable operators within the next 12
months, NBC will try to negotiate broader distribution deals for ValueVision, which now
reaches 21 million homes nationwide.
Within a year, NBC plans to rebrand ValueVision under a new name and marry it with an
online portal that could benefit from the channel's on-air promotion, according to Tom
Rogers, president of NBC Cable.
New ways to purchase
NBC may pair ValueVision with the Snap navigation hub it owns with
CNet(Nasdaq:CNET), but the company has yet to reach a final decision on a portal
partnership, Rogers said.
"This is about contemporizing the way people purchase," Rogers said. "The combination of
television and the Internet can change the way electronic commerce is talked about. |
