Watch Non StopWhy business news is worth watching live
In most genres, live is a matter of atmosphere. In business news it is a matter of substance, because the information changes prices within minutes and the reaction is part of the story. A rate decision, a set of results or a policy announcement is worth following as it happens; the same item three hours later is history.
That does not mean leaving a business channel on from open to close. It means knowing which moments deserve attention, and which channel to turn to for each.
The three families of channel
Global financial networks
The international networks follow the trading day around the world, handing over from Asia to Europe to the Americas. Their strength is the cross-market view: how a move in bonds reaches currencies, equities and commodities. Several publish free live streams or continuous free programming online alongside their subscription services.
National business channels
Many countries have their own business television, in the local language and organised around the local exchange. They cover domestic companies, the national budget and the central bank in a depth no global network attempts. India is the clearest example, with business channels in English and Hindi, described in the guide to Indian news channels.
Institutional and independent streams
Central banks, exchanges, regulators and international organisations stream their own press conferences and hearings. Independent analysts and trading rooms stream commentary through the session. The first group is primary source; the second is opinion, sometimes useful, never authoritative. The guide to live trading streams covers the trading-room side.
The moments that deserve live attention
- Central-bank decisions. The major central banks meet on a published calendar, several times a year, and their press conferences are streamed by the banks themselves. The statement moves markets; the questions and answers move them again.
- Economic data. Inflation, employment and growth figures are released on fixed dates at fixed times. Business channels cut to them live.
- Results seasons. Listed companies report every quarter, and the weeks that follow each quarter end are dense with announcements.
- Budgets and fiscal statements. Presented to parliaments once or twice a year and carried live, line by line.
- The open and the close. The first and last half hours of a session concentrate the day's activity.
Outside those moments, business television is mostly interviews and analysis. Good ones are worth seeking out, but they lose little by being watched later.
Using business channels well
- Start from the event, not the channel. Decide what you want to follow today, then pick the channel closest to it.
- Prefer the primary feed when there is one. Hear the announcement itself, then turn to a channel for the interpretation.
- Watch the national channel for national stories. A company's home business channel will have its executives on air first.
- Keep it in a corner. The mini player or a tile of the multiview wall in the Console is enough between events.
What is in the catalogue
Watch Non Stop lists 131 channels in the trading and markets category, 78 of them on air as this page was built: business news networks, exchange and institutional feeds, and independent market commentary. They play through their official players and are free to watch with no account.
General news channels are a useful complement. A political decision becomes a market event within minutes, and the business channels are often quicker than general news to spot it, and the reverse is true of geopolitical stories.
Following the day across time zones
Markets open in sequence: Asia and Australia first, then the Gulf and Europe, then the Americas. A viewer in Europe wakes up to the Asian close and goes to bed after the American one. National business channels from each zone are at their most informative during their own session, which is another reason to choose by event and by hour rather than by habit.
What business television is not
Nothing said on a live programme is personal financial advice, and nothing in this article is either. Guests have positions, anchors have airtime to fill, and a forecast delivered with confidence is still a forecast. The value of live business news is in knowing what has happened and how others are reacting. What to do about it is a separate question, and television is not the place to answer it.