NBC News - Ballotpedia

NBC News
Basic facts
Location:	New York, N.Y.
Type:	News Media
Affiliation:	NBCUniversal
Top official:	Cesar Conde, Chairman, NBCUniversal News Group
Website:	Official website

Contents

• 1 Background
• 2 Leadership
• 3 Work and activities
  • 3.1 Presidential debates (2015-2016)
  • 3.2 2020 Democratic primary debates
  • 3.3 2024 Republican primary debates
• 4 Finances
• 5 Recent news
• 6 See also
• 7 External links
• 8 Footnotes

NBC News, also known as NBC News Digital, provides news programming across various platforms (including cable television and online news) for NBCUniversal, a media and entertainment company based in New York, N.Y. NBC News is a subsidiary of the NBCUniversal News Group, which is a division of NBCUniversal.[1]

Background

American businessman David Sarnoff founded the first permanent radio network in U.S. history, National Broadcasting Company Inc. (NBC), in 1926 (Universal was founded in 1912 by Carl Laemmle). NBC's Sunday morning news talk show Meet the Press first aired as a radio program in 1945, and it became a television program in 1947.[2]

A year later, The Camel Newsreel Theater became NBC's first regularly scheduled newscast, and the company covered the presidential nominating conventions as well. In 1952, the Today show, hosted by David Garroway, became the first early-morning news talk show in U.S. history. Several television news programs were created during the following decades, including a journalism documentary show called NBC White Paper, which was first aired in 1960, and The Rachel Maddow Show, which first aired on MSNBC in 2008.[2]

General Electric purchased NBC's parent company, RCA, in 1986. NBC began to enter the cable news world when it launched CNBC in 1989, and partnered with Microsoft to launch news channel MSNBC in 1996. In 2004, NBC joined with Universal to create NBCUniversal. Comcast Corporation acquired NBCUniversal in 2011.[2]

Leadership

As of August 2025, the following held leadership positions at NBC News:[3]

• Mike Cavanagh, President, Comcast Corporation
• Cesar Conde, Chairman, NBCUniversal News Group
• Kimberley D. Harris,Executive Vice President of Comcast Corporation and General Counsel of NBCUniversal
• Donna Langley, Chairman, NBCUniversal Entertainment & Studios
• Adam Miller, Chief Operating Officer
• Craig Robinson, Executive Vice President, Chief Inclusion Officer
• Matt Strauss,Chairman, NBCUniversal Media Groupy
• Mark Woodbury, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Universal Destinations & Experiences

Work and activities

According to its website, NBC News "is a collection of innovative and powerful news brands that deliver compelling, diverse and visually engaging stories on your platform of choice. NBC News Digital features world-class brands including NBCNews.com, MSNBC.com, TODAY.com, Nightly News, Meet the Press, Dateline, and the existing apps and digital extensions of these respective properties."[1]

Presidential debates (2015-2016)

See also: Presidential debates (2015-2016)

On December 16, 2015, NBC News announced that it would co-host the fourth Democratic debate along with YouTube and the Congressional Black Caucus. NBC Nightly News Anchor Lester Holt moderated the debate, which took place from 9-11 p.m.[4] Democratic presidential candidate Martin O'Malley almost did not make the cut to participate in the debate due to NBC News' criteria for entry. He appeared on stage in Charleston with fellow candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.[5]

2020 Democratic primary debates

See also:Democratic presidential primary debate (June 26-27, 2019) and Democratic presidential primary debate (February 19, 2020)

NBC News hosted the first and ninth Democratic presidential primary debates on June 26-27, 2019 and February 19, 2020.[6][7]

2024 Republican primary debates

See also:Republican presidential primary debate (November 8, 2023)

NBC News hosted the third Republican presidential primary debate on November 8, 2023. The moderators were Hugh Hewitt, Lester Holt, and Kristen Welker. [8]

Finances

As of August 2025, financial data for NBC News was not available. If you have information to share, click here.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms NBC News. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

NBC News - Google News

See also

• What is an influencer?
• ABC News
• CBS News
• New York, N.Y.

External links

• NBC News
• Comcast Corporation website
• NBC News on Facebook
• NBC News on Instagram
• NBC News on X
• NBC News on Youtube

Footnotes

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 NBC News, "About NBC News Digital," accessed January 14, 2016
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 NBCUniversal, "Our History," accessed January 14, 2016
3. ↑ NBC Universal, "NBCUniversal Leadership Team," accessed August 6, 2025
4. ↑ Politico, "NBC and YouTube to co-host Democratic debate on Jan. 17," December 16, 2015
5. ↑ USA Today, "New NBC debate criteria could pose problems for O'Malley," January 11, 2016
6. ↑ Politico, "NBC grapples with 20 candidates, 1 tweeting president in first Dem debates," accessed June 21, 2019
7. ↑ NBC News, "Full transcript: Ninth Democratic debate in Las Vegas," accessed August 6, 2025
8. ↑ NBC News, "The war for second place got hot, but the third GOP debate didn't dent Trump," November 8, 2023

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