News Broadcasting
Brian Williams to leave CNBC show
NEW YORK: As he prepares to succeed Tom Brokaw as the anchor of the NBC Nightly News after the 2004 presidential election, Brian Williams is shedding a high-profile assignment on one of the network’s cable channels.
Beginning in January, CNBC’s The News with Brian Williams will have a different anchor, NBC News announced on 10 November. Williams has been the anchor of the one-hour, prime-time news program on CNBC since July 2002, when NBC News shifted it from a sister channel, MSNBC, to make room for the short-lived return to television of Phil Donahue.
“We are heading into an incredibly busy news cycle in 2004 with the primary season, the conventions, the Olympics and the elections,” NBC News president Neal Shapiro said. “With the transition at ‘Nightly’ on the horizon, it’s more important than ever that Williams is able to turn his full attention to the network for the coverage of these stories.”
Nonetheless, the change comes when the ratings for Williams’s program are substantially lower than a year ago. In October the program drew an average of 439,000 viewers, a decrease of 41 per cent from the same month a year ago, when its average viewership was 743,000, according to Nielsen Media Research.
But NBC executives said that the decision to relieve Williams of his duties had nothing to do with ratings, and that they considered such comparisons unfair. In October 2002, they said, Williams’ ratings – along with those of other news programs – were unusually high because of coverage of the sniper shootings in the Washington area.
Last month, they pointed out that Williams was frequently absent from his program, as he traveled to Rome (for the 25th anniversary of Pope John Paul II) and to California (for the recall election) on behalf of NBC News.
News Broadcasting
Network18 channels lead YouTube news viewership in March 2026
CNN-News18, News18 India and CNBC channels top categories with record views
MUMBAI: When the world hit refresh on breaking news, Network18’s channels were already streaming ahead. As geopolitical tensions and war-driven headlines fuelled a surge in global news consumption, the network’s digital playbook delivered big clocking record Youtube viewership across English, Hindi and business news categories in March 2026.
At the forefront was CNN-News18, which emerged as the clear leader in the English news segment with 130 million live and video-on-demand views. The channel edged past competitors such as Times of India (126.5 million), Times Now (101.1 million), India Today (88.2 million) and NDTV (77.5 million), according to Databeings data for March.
In the Hindi news arena, News18 India delivered a commanding performance, racking up a staggering 3,297 million views on YouTube. The channel comfortably outpaced NDTV India, which recorded 3,119 million views, underlining its deep reach and consistent engagement with mass audiences, as per Playboard data.
The network’s dominance wasn’t confined to general news. In the Hindi business segment, CNBC Awaaz topped the charts with 92 million views, narrowly ahead of Zee Business (90 million) and well ahead of ET Now Swadesh (57 million). Meanwhile, its English counterpart CNBC-TV18 posted a strong 58 million views, reinforcing the network’s cross-category strength.
The spike in viewership reflects a broader shift in audience behaviour, with viewers increasingly turning to digital platforms particularly Youtube for real-time updates and in-depth coverage during high-intensity news cycles. For Network18, the numbers signal more than just scale; they underline the effectiveness of a multi-platform strategy that blends speed, credibility and continuous coverage.
In a month where the news never paused, it seems viewers chose to stay tuned where the stream never stopped.
