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.
Now, MSNBC is being upended by the very technology it first embraced, with streaming video 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 means MSNBC will be owned by a separate entity from its parent NBC News. Nothing changes right away, however. The spinoff, valued at $7 billion, isn’t expected to be completed for about a year.
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 staffers that he was unsure what the arrangement would mean for the channel’s name and logo, which incorporates the recognizable multicolored NBC peacock.
Changing the name would require a massive promotional campaign. Its audience of habit-bound older viewers — the media age is over 70 — might be resistant to trust a brand they don’t recognize.
The spinoff also could 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 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. How that arrangement would work under the new structure is one of the issues the new company will face.
