UPDATED: Comcast‘s announcement Wednesday that it will spin off nearly all of its cable networks has left a host of questions as to the path forward, particularly given the intertwined nature of NBC News with MSNBC and, to a lesser extent, CNBC.
“I could be completely wrong. We could all be fired a year from now. You never know what’s going to happen tomorrow,” Morning Joe host Joe Scarborough said on air this morning, before putting a more hopeful gloss on the pending change.
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“What they are doing is what other media firms are doing — you spin off the cable channels which, seven years ago, were making a ton of money. Now they’re trying to figure out how to make them profitable.”
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MSNBC and CNBC will be spun off along with other channels such as USA Network and Golf Channel into a separate company led by Mark Lazarus, the current chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group. Comcast said that the new company, dubbed SpinCo for the time being, “will be better positioned to achieve long-term growth and create value for stakeholders.”
Cable channels in general have grappled with audience erosion, and while MSNBC achieved some ratings successes in the most recent election cycle, overtaking CNN on some key breaking-news moments, the worry is over long-term decline as viewers cut the cord, migrate to streaming or turn to YouTube and social media alternatives. Since the election, MSNBC and CNN have seen a viewership falloff, while Fox News has gained share.
More immediate is the question of how and whether MSNBC will be linked to NBC News, which has given the cable network journalistic heft yet no longer will be under the same corporate umbrella. Such MSNBC anchors as José Díaz-Balart and Katy Tur hold dual roles as journalists for NBC News as well, and the cable network relies on its correspondents for breaking news updates. Andrea Mitchell, the chief foreign affairs correspondent and chief Washington correspondent for NBC News, has anchored a daily MSNBC show since 2008, although that will end after the inauguration. She will continue to serve as a correspondent for NBCUniversal platforms.
Insiders suggest that the structure is still being worked out. Also uncertain is whether MSNBC will have the same name and still use the Peacock logo. Meanwhile, talent and staffers are anxious, as can be expected, about whether the changes will mean downsizing given that has happened across the industry as a whole.
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Some kind of arrangement between MSNBC and NBC News wouldn’t be entirely unusual. CBS News and the BBC, for instance, have had a content-sharing relationship for some time.
As much as the networks have been intertwined, in recent years MSNBC has been leaning in to its own primetime hosts, including Joy Reid, Rachel Maddow and Nicolle Wallace, as the key anchors for major breaking-news events like Election Night. Led by Rashida Jones, the network also has tried to capitalize on its progressive fan base, starting a live-event series that included the all-day MSNBC Live: Democracy 2024 in Brooklyn in September.
MSNBC launched in 1996 as a venture between NBC and Microsoft, at first emphasizing the emerging internet revolution with interactive segments. That eventually gave way to an emphasis on personalities from the right and left, including Tucker Carlson and Phil Donahue, before it gained more traction with a primetime lineup that leaned left, including Keith Olbermann and Maddow.
Over the years, there also has been tension between the broadcast network and MSNBC, with its slate of hosts — or who the network calls “perspective” programming. Earlier this year, a succession of MSNBC hosts spoke out publicly against the NBC News decision to hire Ronna McDaniel, the former Republican National Committee chair, as a commentator. After the outcry, the hiring decision was reversed.
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CNBC has been a separate entity within the Comcast universe until only in recent years, when Cesar Conde, chairman of NBCUniversal News Group, gained oversight of the network when he took the top role in 2020. One of the efforts to inject more general news reporting into the CNBC lineup, a nightly newscast with Shepard Smith, was canceled in 2022 due to low viewership. Unlike MSNBC, which is based at 30 Rock, CNBC is still in Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
Conde will stay at Comcast and oversee entities including NBC News, the streaming channel NBC News Now and Telemundo.
KC Sullivan, the president of CNBC, wrote in a memo to employees that they will begin reporting to Lazarus immediately, with plans for him to address staffers Thursday. Variety and Vanity Fair reported that Lazarus met with MSNBC staffers this morning.
In the memo, Sullivan wrote: “As we think about how today’s news impacts CNBC, I first think of our unique position in the industry and within the minds of our audiences: We are essential to our audience – not only as a cable network but as an essential business brand. We have an audience that is capable and willing to pay for our news content and insights. And we have built a diversified, growing and profitable business.”