Comcast officially announced on Wednesday it would spin off several NBCUniversal cable networks, including MSNBC, in a move that will dramatically shake up the landscape of legacy media as the liberal cable outlet will no longer be affiliated with NBC News.
Cesar Conde will continue leading the NBCUniversal News Group, but now that group only includes NBC News, the NBC News Now streaming service, Telemundo and owned-and-operated local stations. Conde loses oversight of MSNBC and CNBC in the process and the fate of shared resources – and even the cable network’s name and editorial direction– are in question.
A current MSNBC staffer is “intrigued by the amount of thought that seems to have gone into” the decision from a business standpoint, but said there is a “big concern” about what this means going forward for MSNBC.
“What is MSNBC going to be editorially? I would say some people are probably relieved that probably Comcast and NBC will have less to do with that, because if you look at the kerfuffles over the last year with Mika and Joe and with Ronna McDaniel, it was all… out of sync with our viewers, are our hosts and reporters out of sync with our bosses,” a current MSNBC staffer told Fox News Digital.
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“There was no conversation about what that editorial direction is going to look like on this front,” they continued. “But, I don’t know that anything [will be] different than it was two days ago.”
The progressive network has had its share of public relations headaches this year, most notably the short-lived hiring of former Republican chair Ronna McDaniel as a contributor to NBC in March, and last week’s meeting between President-elect Donald Trump and “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski.
The staffer added they were in the dark about whether MSNBC would even operate out of NBC’s famed Rockefeller Center headquarters that currently houses the network.
The staffer believes Comcast “identified the things that are not allowing MSNBC and CNBC, which earn a lot of money, to enjoy the fruits of their success” because profits get “siphoned off to pay off other people’s pet projects.”
“Arguably, we’re still a deteriorating business, but this is a potential way to squeeze more value out of these businesses,” the employee said.
“Everybody at MSNBC sort of saw the worst coming between some of the cuts that we’ve taken and the political winds shifting and our exodus of viewers,” they continued, adding that there is optimism this will be “a growth project rather than a shrinking project.”
“I think most people have come to terms with the fact that our alignment with NBC is not great,” the MSNBC staffer said.
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The decision comes as the rise in popularity of streaming services and cord-cutting has hit the cable industry. MSNBC remains profitable, but the announcement coincides with viewers fleeing the network on the heels of President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.
Scarborough has already joked on-air that he could get “fired” once the spin-off is complete, which is expected to take about a year. “When this happens, you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.
The current MSNBC employee said that resources have been downsized already, so the idea of additional downsizing wouldn’t surprise anyone at the liberal cable network. A longtime, former high-level NBC News staffer doesn’t believe the move will benefit his ex-colleagues who rely on the editorial resources of MSNBC.
“Despite NBC News claiming it’s separate from MSNBC, they share many resources,” the former NBC News staffer said.
“It would be the tragic disembowelment of NBC News and leave it weak and flailing and largely irrelevant,” they continued. “Much like ABC News and CBS News are.”
Comcast, NBC News and MSNBC did not immediately respond when asked what would happen to shared resources, including on-air figures that contribute to both NBC News and MSNBC.
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NBC News’ own online report on the move noted that “it would separate MSNBC and CNBC from the central newsgathering operations of NBC News.”
“It was not immediately clear whether the cable news channels and the network’s core news division would continue to share editorial resources,” NBC News reporter Daniel Arkin wrote.
Multiple prominent figures appear across both networks. MSNBC’s dayside news coverage frequently features NBC News reporters, while its opinion lineup starts with Nicolle Wallace at 4 p.m. ET and into primetime is progressive commentary.
While the former NBC News employee thinks NBC News could be in trouble, the current MSNBC employee doesn’t think anyone will miss their soon-to-be former colleagues.
“I think most people at NBC would just as soon not have to share those resources with MSNBC because they don’t think we have similar goals. It feels the same way going the other direction,” the MSNBC staffer said.
The move isn’t a surprise, as Comcast president Mike Cavanagh suggested last month during the company’s third-quarter earnings call with investors that it was looking to create “a new, well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks.”
A few weeks later, the plan came to fruition.NBCUniversal’s cable television networks will fall under a new company currently called “SpinCo” led by Mark Lazarus, the current Chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group, and Anand Kini, the current Chief Financial Officer of NBCUniversal and EVP of Corporate Strategy at Comcast.
USA Network, CNBC, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and Golf Channel along with complementary digital assets including Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and Sports Engine join MSNBC as part of the new company.
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With current NBCUniversal executives atop the new company, MSNBC viewers likely don’t have to worry about new ownership tamping down the network’s liberal programming. However, the situation is so murky that Lazarus doesn’t even know if MSNBC will have to change its identity, including the name and logo that have been long synonymous with NBC.
The current MSNBC staffer who spoke to Fox News Digital attended a 10 a.m. ET meeting with Lazarus, who was tasked with answering questions about the announcement.
“It was not standoffish. It was not hostile. People don’t really know him and have no particular reason to be hostile toward him… I mean, he’s not the world’s most dynamic guy, but I think he presented pretty well,” they said.
The MSNBC employee said it was “interesting” that Lazarus implied a name change could be on the horizon. MSNBC was named in 1996 as a partnership of Microsoft and NBC, hence the name, but Microsoft hasn’t been involved for years, and its relationship with NBC is coming to an end.
“There’s a lot of brand equity involved in being MSNBC or CNBC,” the employee said.
The MSNBC employee also believes “technical separation” with NBC News might be more difficult than an editorial split.
“Everybody’s deployed out of our facilities at Long Island City where we share physical cameras and camera people and sound engineers, all that’s got to change. And it sounds like all that is going to NBC and then MSNBC is going to have to rebuild an infrastructure, which is a very, very big deal,” they said.
“That’s a big expense in a time of retrenchment,” the staffer continued. “So, I was surprised to hear Mark Lazarus talk about that, or even suggest that was the case because if he didn’t say anything about it, most of us would’ve assumed we’re done on that front.”
The assets set to make up SpinCo generated roughly $7 billion in revenue over the last 12 months and Comcast hopes to complete the spinoff project in a year. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that Comcast is guessing NBCUniversal’s other assets in broadcast TV, sports, movies and theme parks would have higher growth potential going forward.
Fox News Digital’s Hanna Panreck and David Rutz contributed to this report.
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