MSNBC is literally disappearing. The new name is MSNOW which sounds like a fake AI created site or a medical problem. There’s a reason for the rebrand. Like other communications companies, Comcast is spinning off its cable channels into a company initially called SpinCo and now Versant. And the NBC branding is going with it. MSNBC/MSNOW is still keeping the Microsoft ‘MS’ branding even though it’s been a long, long time since ‘Redmond’ had anything to do with MSNBC.
But NBC very clearly doesn’t want the association. That’s why MSNBC is getting the rebrand while CNBC, which is also being spun off, isn’t.
The big picture though is that MSNBC and CNN are both doomed.
AT&T cut CNN and the rest of the cable package loose into Discovery. In an era when cable is dying, cable channels aren’t all that valuable anymore. And don’t have much of a future. MSNBC and CNN are struggling and without the business model of cable packages and bundled channels, the whole proposition may go away sooner rather than later.
News is a prestige product. It doesn’t make much sense individually. Without the package of a network or a channel bundle, CNN and MSNWhatever stop making any kind of economic sense. From the looks of things, CNN will outlive MSNOW, but by how much?
