For nearly three decades, MSNBC has been one of the most recognizable names in cable news. But on Monday, the network reportedly announced that the brand will vanish, replaced by a new title designed to distance itself from its former corporate parent.
The network, which launched in 1996 as a partnership between NBC and Microsoft, will now be known as My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW.
The rebrand follows the channel’s spinoff from NBCUniversal, which had allowed the network to continue using the NBC name even after Comcast took full ownership of NBC News.
But executives decided the connection was too close for comfort. “During this time of transition, NBCUniversal decided that our brands require a new, separate identity,” Mark Lazarus, the chief executive of Versant, the new parent company of MSNBC and CNBC, said in a memo.
“This decision now allows us to set our own course and assert our independence as we continue to build our own modern newsgathering operation.”
That separation includes more than just a name. MSNBC is also losing the iconic NBC peacock logo, a fixture of American broadcast culture for generations.
“The future of our success is not tied to remaining within the NBC family and using the peacock as part of our identity,” Lazarus said. “As we all know, the peacock is synonymous with NBCUniversal, and it is a symbol they have decided to keep within the NBCU family.”
The symbolism is difficult to miss: while NBCUniversal tightens its grip on the peacock brand, its former progressive-leaning cable sibling must now operate without the shared credibility that came with it.
Lazarus tried to frame the change as liberating. “This gives us the opportunity to chart our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin,” he added.
CNBC, which remains under Versant alongside MS NOW, will keep its longstanding name — though its logo will also drop the peacock. Executives attributed the distinction to contractual obligations, but the result highlights the unevenness of the breakup.
MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler sought to calm staff and viewers with her own memo. Acknowledging that the channel was about to enter a high-profile rebranding campaign, she said it would be “unlike anything we have done in recent memory.”
She insisted, however, that the network’s ideological orientation and editorial mission would remain untouched. “While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not,” Kutler wrote. “Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades.”
That promise — a blend of news and left-leaning opinion programming — has been both the network’s calling card and its liability. For years, critics have argued that MSNBC blurred the line between reporting and partisanship. Now, even the company’s new name, My Source News Opinion World, appears to lean into the identity that once drew skepticism.
For conservatives, the rebrand raises questions about whether MS NOW can survive without the borrowed prestige of NBC’s heritage. Without the peacock, the network must prove that its influence comes from more than branding.
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