Starting off as a radio network in the 1920s, NBC evolved into a television broadcaster in the 1940s. Today, NBC is a diverse, international media company. In addition to the NBC Television Network and 13 television stations, the company owns CNBC, which is the global leader in business news, reaching 198 million homes worldwide. In partnership with Microsoft, NBC operates MSNBC, which is a leading cable-news channel and the world's preeminent news site on the Internet. NBC maintains equity interests in Arts & Entertainment, the History Channel, Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., and several new media companies. International holdings include CNBC Europe and CNBC Asia, which are services of NBC and Dow Jones, and an equity position in National Geographic Channels International.

Setting industry standards in technology and programming since its inception, NBC is a network of "firsts": the first permanent broadcasting network in the nation; the first U.S. coast-to-coast radio broadcast (the 1927 Rose Bowl); the first license for a commercial television station, now WNBC, in 1941; the first to offer an early-morning news program, in 1952; the revolutionary first color telecast, in 1953; the first made-for-television movie, in 1964; the first to broadcast in stereo, in 1984; and the first major television network to launch a full-scale Web offering, NBC.com, in 1995.

Employing more than six thousand people worldwide, NBC produces hundreds of hours of programming a week and reaches viewers in more than one hundred countries on six continents. NBC programs have been honored with nearly a thousand Emmy Awards (more than any other network) and more than one hundred Peabody Awards.

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