MS NOW
MS NOW is an American cable news channel owned by Versant. The channel primarily broadcasts rolling news coverage and modern liberal-leaning political commentary; its headquarters are based at 229 West 43rd Street in New York City, while it also maintains a bureau in Washington, D.C.
The channel was established in 1996 as MSNBC, a joint venture between NBC News and Microsoft that also included the news portal MSNBC.com. Microsoft divested its stake in the TV channel in 2005, followed by the website in 2012; the website was subsequently rebranded as NBCNews.com, and MSNBC.com was later taken over by the cable channel's editorial staff.
It initially focused on rolling news coverage, including long-form reports, interactive programs, and stories contributed by the local news departments of NBC's affiliates. By the late 2000s, the network shifted to primarily opinion-based programming featuring liberal commentators such as Keith Olbermann, Chris Matthews, David Gregory, Ed Schultz, and Rachel Maddow; in 2010, MSNBC surpassed CNN in primetime and overall viewership for the first time since 2001. In the mid-2010s, amid a decline in viewership, MSNBC concentrated on hard news coverage, and added programs incorporating NBC News personalities.
Under new leadership in the 2020s, MSNBC began reducing its reliance on NBC News personalities, and expanded its own newsgathering resources. In 2025, with Comcast preparing to divest most of NBCUniversal's cable networks as the new company Versant in 2026, MSNBC separated itself from the NBCUniversal News Group and rebranded as "MS NOW" on November 15, 2025. At the same time, it relocated its operations from 30 Rockefeller Plaza to studios at Versant's headquarters at 229 West 43rd Street.
In November 2025, MS NOW was the second most-watched cable news network, averaging 599,000 total day viewers, behind rival Fox News, which averaged 1.376 million viewers, and ahead of CNN, which averaged 429,000 viewers. In the key demographic of adults ages 24–54, the channel averaged 55,000 total day viewers, behind rival networks Fox, which averaged 123,000 viewers, and CNN, which averaged 70,000 viewers. In the same month, The Rachel Maddow Show was the only non-Fox News show to appear in the quarter's top fifteen cable news programs, both by total viewers and the A24–54 demo.
History
Development
MSNBC was established in 1996 under a strategic partnership between NBC and Microsoft. NBC executive Tom Rogers was instrumental in developing the partnership. James Kinsella, a Microsoft executive, served as president of the online component, MSNBC.com, and represented the technology company in the joint venture. Microsoft invested $221 million for a 50 percent share of the cable channel. MSNBC and Microsoft shared the cost of a $200 million newsroom in Secaucus, New Jersey, for msnbc.com. The network took over the channel space of NBC's two-year-old America's Talking network, although in most cases cable carriage had to be negotiated with providers who had never carried AT.1996–2007
As MSNBC
MSNBC was launched on July 15, 1996. The first show was anchored by Jodi Applegate and included news, interviews, and commentary. During the day, rolling news coverage continued with The Contributors, a show that featured Ann Coulter and Laura Ingraham, as well as interactive programming coordinated by Applegate, John Gibson, and John Seigenthaler. Stories were generally longer and more detailed than the stories CNN was running. NBC also highlighted their broadcast connections by airing stories directly from NBC's network affiliates, along with breaking news coverage from the same sources.MSNBC gradually increased its emphasis on politics. After completing its seven-year survey of cable channels, the Project for Excellence in Journalism said in 2007 that "MSNBC is moving to make politics a brand, with a large dose of opinion and personality."
In January 2001, Mike Barnicle's MSNBC show started, but it was canceled in June 2001 because of high production costs. In June, Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer said that he would not have started MSNBC had he foreseen the difficulty of attracting viewers.
After the September 11, 2001, attacks, NBC used MSNBC as an outlet for the up-to-the-minute coverage being provided by NBC News as a supplement to the longer stories on broadcast NBC. With little financial news to cover, CNBC and CNBC Europe ran MSNBC for many hours each day following the attacks. The year also boosted the profile of Ashleigh Banfield, who was present during the collapse of Building 7 while covering the World Trade Center on September 11. Her Region in Conflict program capitalized on her newfound celebrity and showcased exclusive interviews from Afghanistan.
In the aftermath of September 11, MSNBC began calling itself "America's NewsChannel" and hired opinionated hosts like Alan Keyes, Phil Donahue, Pat Buchanan, and Tucker Carlson. This branding makeover, however, was followed by declining ratings.
On December 23, 2005, NBC Universal announced its acquisition of an additional 32 percent share of MSNBC from Microsoft, which solidified its control over television operations and allowed NBC to further consolidate MSNBC's backroom operations with NBC News and its other cable properties. NBC later exercised its option to purchase Microsoft's remaining 18 percent interest in MSNBC.
In late 2005, MSNBC began attracting liberal and progressive viewers as Keith Olbermann began critiquing and satirizing conservative media commentators during his Countdown With Keith Olbermann program. He especially focused his attention on the Fox News Channel and Bill O'Reilly, its principal primetime commentator.
On June 7, 2006, Rick Kaplan resigned as president of MSNBC after holding the post for two years. Five days later, Dan Abrams, a nine-year veteran of MSNBC and NBC News, was named general manager of MSNBC with immediate effect. NBC News senior vice president Phil Griffin would oversee MSNBC while continuing to oversee NBC News' Today program, with Abrams reporting to Griffin.
On June 29, 2006, Abrams announced the revamp of MSNBC's early-primetime and primetime schedule. On July 10, Tucker started airing at 4 p.m. and 6 pm ET, while Rita Cosby's Live & Direct was canceled. Cosby was made the primary anchor for MSNBC Investigates at 10 and 11 pm ET, a new program that took over Cosby and Carlson's timeslots. According to the press release, MSNBC Investigates promised to "complement MSNBC's existing programming by building on library of award-winning documentaries." The move to taped programming during 10 and 11 p.m. probably resulted from MSNBC's successful Friday "experiment" of replacing all primetime programming with taped specials.
On September 24, 2007, Abrams announced that he was leaving his general manager position so he could focus on his 9:00 pm ET talk show, Live With Dan Abrams. Oversight of MSNBC was shifted to Phil Griffin, a senior vice president at NBC.
MSNBC and NBC News began broadcasting from their new studios at NBC's 30 Rockefeller Plaza complex in New York City on October 22, 2007. The extensive renovations of the associated studios allowed NBC to merge its entire news operation into one building. All MSNBC broadcasts and NBC Nightly News originate from the new studios. More than 12.5 hours of live television across the NBC News family originate from the New York studios daily. MSNBC also announced new studios near the Universal Studios lot. MSNBC's master control did not make the move to 30 Rock. It remained in the old Secaucus headquarters until it completed its move to the NBC Universal Network Origination Center located inside the CNBC Global Headquarters building in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey in 2007.
Major League Baseball uses the former MSNBC building for MLB Network, which launched from the facility on January 1, 2009.
2008–2015
From mid-2007 to mid-2008, MSNBC enjoyed a large increase in its Nielsen ratings. Primetime viewings increased by 61 percent. In May 2008, NBC News president Steve Capus said, "It used to be people didn't have to worry about MSNBC because it was an also-ran cable channel.... That's not the case anymore." Tim Russert's sudden death in June 2008 removed the person whom The Wall Street Journal called the "rudder for the network" and led to a period of transition.During the 2008 presidential election, MSNBC's coverage was anchored by Olbermann, Chris Matthews, and David Gregory. They were widely viewed as the face of the channel's political coverage. During the first three months of the presidential campaign, MSNBC's ratings grew by 158 percent. Olbermann and Matthews, however, were criticized for expressing left-leaning opinions on the channel. Both were later removed from their anchor positions. Audience viewership during the 2008 presidential campaign more than doubled from the 2004 presidential election, and the channel topped CNN in ratings for the first time during the last three months of the campaign in the key 25–54 age demographic.
In September 2008, the channel hired political analyst and Air America Radio personality Rachel Maddow to host The Rachel Maddow Show. The move to create a new program for the channel was widely seen as a well-calculated ratings move, where beforehand, MSNBC lagged behind in coveted primetime ratings. The show regularly outperformed CNN's Larry King Live, and made the channel competitive in the program's time slot for the first time in over a decade.
In the first quarter of 2010, MSNBC beat CNN in primetime and overall ratings for the first time since 2001. The channel also beat CNN in total adult viewers in March, marking the seventh out of the past eight months that MSNBC achieved that result. In addition, the programs Morning Joe, The Ed Show, Hardball with Chris Matthews, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, and The Rachel Maddow Show finished ahead of their time slot competitors at CNN.
In the third quarter of 2010, MSNBC continued its solid lead over CNN, beating the network in total day for the first time since the second quarter of 2001 in the key adult demographic. The network also beat CNN for the fourth consecutive quarter, among both primetime and total viewers, as well as becoming the only cable news network to have its key adult demographic viewership grow over the last quarter, increasing by 4 percent. During this time, MSNBC also became the number-one cable news network in primetime among both African American and Hispanic viewers.
On October 11, 2010, MSNBC unveiled a new $2 million marketing campaign, "Lean Forward"; MSNBC president Phil Griffin considered the two-year campaign an effort to promote the channel as a progressive competitor to the conservative-leaning Fox News Channel, explaining that "we've taken on CNN and we beat them," and that the new slogan was "about making tomorrow better than today, a discussion about politics and the actions and passions of our time."
On January 21, 2011, Olbermann announced his departure from MSNBC and the episode would be the final episode of Countdown. His departure received much media attention. MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with Olbermann, with no further explanation. Olbermann later revealed that he had taken his show to Current TV.
On July 16, 2012, Microsoft sold its stake in MSNBC.com to NBCUniversal; concurrently, the website was rebranded as NBCNews.com to associate it with the NBC News division as a whole, while MSNBC.com was later relaunched as a website for the channel itself. Concerns had previously been raised by NBC News executives over potential confusion between the two properties due to their diverging editorial scopes, as MSNBC.com had largely remained a general-interest news website despite the channel's pivot towards political commentary. NBCUniversal News Group was created on July 19, 2012, under chairwoman Pat Fili-Krushel. It has been the news division of NBCUniversal. It is composed of the NBC News, CNBC and MSNBC units.
During 2014, MSNBC's total ratings in the 25–54 demographic declined 20 percent, falling to third place behind CNN. Nevertheless, MSNBC retained its lead among the Hispanic and African-American demographics.