Yousef Gamal El-Din Joins CNBC as a Presenter in Bahrain

Capital Connection Starts Daily Programming from the Region

London and Manama, 7 June 2010: CNBC, First in Business Worldwide, will start broadcasting live from Bahrain on Monday, 14 June.

The new editorial hub will coordinate and produce business and financial newsgathering from the Middle East, with a studio and production facility linked to CNBC's global network.

Coverage will start on 14 June at 7.00am (Bahrain time) when CNBC's pan-regional programme Capital Connection, will be tri-anchored live from Bahrain, London and Singapore, Monday to Thursdays.  On Fridays the show will be co-anchored from London and Singapore.

The new Capital Connection will help global viewers understand the impact of market movements across European, Asian and Middle Eastern borders - on their portfolios, investment strategies and business decisions.

To help celebrate the launch, viewers will be able to watch a free live broadcast of Capital Connection on CNBC.com.  The launch will also be supported by a print and on-line advertising campaign in the region.

The show's global reach is considerable, broadcasting to 65 countries and more than 185 million households on CNBC in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, in Australasia, New Zealand, on CNBC Africa and CNBC World in the United States.

New Presenter based in the Middle East

CNBC also announced that Yousef Gamal El-Din has joined the network as a co-presenter on Capital Connection and as CNBC's Middle East correspondent.  Gamal El-Din joins from Nile TV in Egypt where he hosted several news, business and culture programmes since 2007.  Gamal El-Din has significant experience of reporting from the region, having interviewed numerous government ministers, officials and business leaders.  Gamal El-Din was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and holds dual Egyptian and Swiss nationalities.

Barbara Stelzner, Vice President for News and Programming, EMEA at CNBC said, "The start of live programming from the Middle East is a significant milestone for the channel.  With editorial facilities in Bahrain and Dubai, with our local-language affiliate channel CNBC Arabiya, we are able to effectively cover the news from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Jordan and other major centres in the region.  We are now well positioned to tell the Middle East's business story to regional and global viewers in Arabic and in English.

"I'm also delighted that Yousef Gamal El-Din has joined our team based in Bahrain.  Yousef brings a wealth of knowledge and insight on the Middle East region which will further strengthen our editorial from the region."

CNBC's popular half-hour monthly programme Gateway to the Middle East will also now be produced from Bahrain.  Since 2007 the show has spoken with the leading voices from the region, giving viewers insight into business trends and investment opportunities.

Across the EMEA region, CNBC reaches more than 640,000 viewers a day and seven million viewers a month (EMS 2009), making it the leading business and financial news channel.

-Ends-

About CNBC in EMEA:
CNBC, First in Business worldwide, is the leading global broadcaster of live business and financial news and information, reporting directly from the major financial markets around the globe, with three regional networks in Asia, EMEA and the US.  In EMEA, CNBC is the only real-time, pan-regional business and financial news network dedicated to CEOs, senior corporate executives, the financial services industry and investors.  The channel is available in approximately 130 million homes, 1,400 banks and financial institutions and leading hotels across Europe, the Middle East and Africa.  Additionally CNBC.com gives you access to live streams of all three CNBC regional networks and to the world's most comprehensive archive of business news videos ever assembled. CNBC is a wholly owned subsidiary of NBC Universal.  NBC Universal is the broadcasting unit of the General Electric Company (GE).

For further information, please contact:
Hugo Foulds at CNBC
hugo.foulds@cnbc.com
+44 (0)7920 821 835

Middle East: 
Assheton Spiegelberg, Brunswick
aspiegelberg@brunswickgroup.com
+971 50 557 2633

Europe: 
Sally Payne, Braben
cnbc@braben.co.uk
+44 (0)20 7025 8021

© Press Release 2010