MSNBC will change its name to MS Now, for My Source News Opinion World, and unveil a new logo this year as part of the cable news channel’s spinoff from the Comcast-owned media company NBCUniversal.
Comcast announced last year that it would spin off most of its cable television networks into a separate publicly traded company called Versant. The new company will include MSNBC and the financial news channel CNBC as well as the USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel.
The branding changes represent Versant’s emphasis on “building our individual identity and vision for the future while laying a foundation for the continued growth and success of our businesses,” Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said in a memo to staff Monday morning.
“The peacock is synonymous with NBCUniversal, and it is a symbol they have decided to keep within the NBCU family,” Lazarus said. “This gives us the opportunity to charge our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin.”
MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said the network will not change editorial direction as it builds out its own newsgathering operation entirely separate from NBC News. (MSNBC launched in 1996 as a joint venture between NBC News and Microsoft.)
“While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not,” Kutler said in an internal memo. “Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades.”
The rebrand will be accompanied by a national marketing campaign “unlike anything we have done in recent memory,” Kutler said.
CNBC, for its part, will keep the acronym “Consumer News and Business Channel” but will debut a new logo without the peacock.
Comcast will retain NBCUniversal assets such as the NBC broadcast network, NBC News, NBC Sports, the streaming platform Peacock and the cable brand Bravo.
