Comcast recently announced their intention to spin off most of their cable companies away from NBCUniversal, and into a new company dubbed SpinCo. That includes their flagship cable news channel MSNBC. With much still up in the air, let’s take a look into what the future may hold for MSNBC.
Separation from NBC NewsMSNBC currently operates with two divisions: the news division, courtesy of NBC News, and the opinion division, which fills up much of their morning, evening, and prime time programming. Now that MSNBC is going to be part of a separate company than NBC and NBC News, it’s uncertain if they will still be able to source from NBC News in the afternoon hours.
MSNBC has some time to figure out if opinion can work in the afternoon, as SpinCo won’t be finalized for another year. One potential place to start is the 12 pm hour, as NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell announced she is leaving her daytime MSNBC show, Andrea Mitchell Reports, in early 2025.
It’s quite possible MSNBC will manage to strike a deal with NBC News to continue using their reporters. Should MSNBC lose their connection to NBC News, they would arguably lose not just some well-known personalities, but also their legitimacy as a news network.
Additional Conservative Personalities
President-elect Trump’s incoming FCC chair, Brendan Carr, recently tweeted ‘Broadcast licenses are not sacred cows’, going on to say media companies ‘are required by law to operate in the public interest. If they don’t, they are going to be held accountable, as the Communications Act requires.’
This places Morning Joe’s Joe Scarborough and Mike Brzezinski’s meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago in a new light. If reports are to be believed that the co-hosts met with the president-elect out of fear of retribution, MSNBC has every reason to consider an expansion of conservative voices in their opinion lineup — except for one.
Morning Joe faced harsh viewer backlash for the meeting, and one would be hard-pressed to think of a conservative host who would appeal to both Carr and MSNBC’s current audience. Giving airtime to a pro-Trump Republican would likely spark a network boycott and force MSNBC to court a new audience. Then again, that may be inevitable if they lose all ties to the NBC brand.
Name Change
If MSNBC can’t maintain their partnership with NBC News, and they shift their programming strategy, a name change for the network could be in the cards. This would effectively be a relaunch of the news network, which may retain top-performing in-house talent while taking on a new identity. This comes with its own set of challenges, and gives the future SpinCo network a reason to want to continue to work with NBC News if they can.
A Different News Partner
If MSNBC loses their partnership with NBC News and doesn’t want to become a 24/7 opinion network, they’d be forced to find a new news partner. The Associated Press comes to mind, as does CBS News depending on the aftermath of Paramount’s merger with Skydance. Combining forces with fellow SpinCo network CNBC could also be an option should both networks find their programming stretched thin. While combining MSNBC and CNBC would arguably be a quick fix for the former in a timeline where it has no news partner, it puts into question the very existence of the latter as a standalone network.
No Streaming Partner
Peacock is currently the streaming home of MSNBC, which makes sense given both have been owned by Comcast under the NBCUniversal umbrella. Peacock hosts recent episodes of the news network’s programs, but doesn’t integrate MSNBC as one of its core assets. Now, with MSNBC becoming a part of SpinCo, it’s unclear if their shows will still be available to stream on Peacock. The streamer will remain a part of NBCUniversal alongside most of the brands that provide it with content. This would provide a greater challenge to the news network, as viewing habits increasingly shift away from cable networks in favor of streaming services.
What do you think the future holds for MSNBC? Let us know in the comments!