New CNBC.com debuts with major video push

Cory Bergman December 4th, 2006

The brand new CNBC.com launched overnight with a bunch of promising features. The site will stream 3-8 hours of live programming every day, including press conferences, interviews and web-only news updates at the top and bottom of the hour. And CNBC.com says it will post more than 75 new clips every day. Users who pay $9.95 a month will be able to watch a live simulcast of CNBC TV as well as search through thousands of archive clips (the site launches with 15,000 of them.) I interviewed CNBC.com VP Meredith Stark about the new site, CNBC’s newsroom integration as well as the site’s video alerts, tagging and live-blogging features below…

After 5 years with MSN, CNBC decided to build its own site outside the MSN network. “We built it from day one to have all our assets integrated,” Stark said, praising CNBC’s all-digital facility. “Anything that comes into this building we can route to our users direct.”

At the top of the home page, CNBC.com keeps users abreast of upcoming live events — a major focus of the site. “We built a digital studio right off the floor from the main TV studio,” Stark explains. People who just appeared on CNBC TV will be interviewed live on the web, and users can click a link to send in their own questions and comments. CNBC.com will also book its own interviews. Then at the top and bottom of the hour, during business hours, the live update “Market in a Minute” will bring users up to speed on the top developments.

For live video, CNBC.com opted with a pop up player so it can “live on your desktop all day,” Stark said. For video on demand, an embedded player is available on most pages. And clips have a copy-paste URL for easy linking.

Users can create their own stock watchlists on the home page, and one of the most intriguing features is video alerts. So for example, when an icon appears next to MSFT in a user’s watchlist, that’s an indication that a Microsoft guest is scheduled to appear later in the day. The same goes for a video icon when there’s a new clip associated with a given company in the watchlist.

Another cool feature is CNBC.com’s Play by Play blog. “We’re going to live-blog our own network,” Stark explained. “Not everyone has TVs in their offices.” So throughout business hours, the blog will offer up-to-the-minute descriptions of what’s happening on air, complete with links to supporting stories (even if they’re off site) and user comments.

Users can choose to pay $9.95 a month for CNBC’s premium video product, CNBC Plus, which offers a live stream of CNBC TV as well as full access to video archives. Clips will be available for 24 hours before they go behind the subscription wall, except when they’re attached to stories or blog posts — then they’re always available for free.

Every story, video clip and blog post on CNBC.com is tagged. “Every aspect of the site is visibly tagged and searchable so our viewers can customize the business universe to their particular needs, whether it’s following their own investment portfolio or targeted companies and industry sectors,” Stark said. When you click on a tag, all of the recent assets are listed, blog-style, with tabs for posts, video and news.

And speaking of blogs, there are a ton of them. Each show has it’s own blog, and the major beats as well, such as media, automotive, real estate and even sports business.

CNBC.com also has all the standard financial tools, including a customizable ticker that runs along the bottom of the browser, regardless of scrolling.

“It’s truly integrated with television,” says Stark of the new CNBC.com. Web staffers sit on the desk as well as work hand in hand with the shows. And as far as the talent, “(There’s a) long line of people wanting to do their own blogs and do more,” she said. “They’re excited about doing an additional channel.”

Although CNBC.com is no longer inside the MSN network, it’s powered by MSNBC.com’s content management system. And Stark said there are “active discussions” with MSN and MSNBC.com about working together with CNBC.com and offering mutual exposure.