What the Comcast cable network spinoff means for MSNBC and NBC News
Stephen Battaglio
5 min read
When NBC launched MSNBC in 1996, the network was marketed with the slogan “It’s Time to Get Connected,” a line that acknowledged the emergence of the internet as a game-changing force in the media. Microsoft, then a minority partner in the channel, made web culture part of its programming.
Now, MSNBC is being upended by the very technology it first embraced, with streaming video now accounting for nearly half of all TV viewing, according to Nielsen. The decline of pay TV has culminated in Comcast placing MSNBC — along with sister networks such as CNBC and E! — in a spinoff company that will essentially be a repository for its cable outlets.
The plan, formally announced Wednesday, means MSNBC will be owned by a separate entity from its parent NBC News, ending what has at times been a tense relationship.
Nothing changes right away, however. The spinoff, valued at $7 billion, isn't expected to be completed for about a year. And NBC News will continue to provide news-gathering services to MSNBC after the spinoff.
Nonetheless, the deal raises questions about the future of liberal-slanted MSNBC, which has at times beat its more down-the-middle rival CNN in ratings for major events such as election night.
NBCUniversal Group Chairman Mark Lazarus, who will oversee the new spun-off company, told MSNBC staff Wednesday that he was unsure what the arrangement would mean for the channel's name and logo, which incorporates the recognizable multicolored NBC peacock.
After all, NBC considered changing the MSNBC moniker after it bought out Microsoft’s share of the network in 2005. (Microsoft was the "MS" in MSNBC.) But the plan was rejected because the name was already part of TV news culture.
Changing the name MSNBC now would require a massive promotional campaign. Its audience of habit-bound older viewers — the median age is over 70 — may be reluctant to trust a brand they don’t recognize.
The spinoff could also increase pressure on talent salaries, which are under scrutiny across all TV news organizations that are facing shrinking audiences.
In 2021, NBCUniversal signed its star host Rachel Maddow to a massive deal paying her a reported $30 million a year. Maddow reduced her MSNBC workload to one day a week in a deal that also has her working on film, documentary and podcast projects for the parent company. How that arrangement would work under the new structure is one of the issues the new company will face.
In its early years, MSNBC served as a training ground for NBC News talent. Brian Williams and Lester Holt both spent hundreds of hours handling breaking news coverage on cable before they were promoted to the anchor chair at "NBC Nightly News." Correspondents such as Savannah Guthrie frequently appeared on the channel, honing the skills that eventually brought her to NBC's "Today."
MSNBC also gave viewers a sense that NBC News was always on, giving it an advantage over its broadcast network competitors CBS and ABC. But it long was unable to overcome the advantage CNN had as the go-to utility for cable news.
Eventually, MSNBC followed the model set by cable news ratings leader Fox News, which succeeded by adding conservative opinion to the mix. Keith Olbermann became the first prime-time star on MSNBC in 2008 by publicly taking on Bill O'Reilly, who was then the signature Fox News host.
While the scuffling got attention, the push into liberal political commentary caused tensions among the more traditional-minded journalists at NBC News.
"Being a maverick always ruffles some feathers, and MSNBC was always being a maverick," said veteran TV news producer Jonathan Wald, who was a senior executive at the network.
But the formula worked. The network became only more popular after Donald Trump emerged as a viable Republican presidential candidate in 2015 and disrupted the accepted norms in presidential politics. Once Trump got elected, MSNBC became home base for viewers opposed to his policies and behavior.
Maddow became a break-out star in prime time. The national shock of Trump created personalities out of Republicans who opposed him, such as Nicolle Wallace, the former White House communications director under George W. Bush.
As MSNBC’s reputation as a destination for progressive viewers became more pronounced, its fans rejected the more neutral approach of NBC News journalists such as Chuck Todd and Andrea Mitchell, who also appeared on the channel.
Earlier this year, MSNBC hosts blasted NBC News management on air when it attempted to hire former Republican National Committee Chair Ronna McDaniel. The unprecedented public rebuke resulted in NBC News management scrapping the deal.
Meanwhile, MSNBC's function as a 24-hour service became redundant at NBC News once the network launched NBC News Now, a free streaming news channel.
But Lazarus, a respected veteran inside NBCUniversal, tried to keep an optimistic tone when addressing staff, according to one attendee at the meeting at the network's Rockefeller Center headquarters in New York. He said the new corporation will be committed to investment in the network.
“I completely empathize with people who think this would be a bittersweet thing," Lazarus said. "I think it's exciting because very few times in life you get to have the opportunity to be part of what I'll call a 'well-funded startup.'”
