MS NOW

In December 1995 NBC and Microsoft announced a partnership under which MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft is a technology company founded by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975 and headquartered in Redmond, Washington, with businesses spanning Windows, Microsoft 365, Azure, enterprise software, artificial intelligence, gaming and devices.Open the full entry paid $220 million for 50% of NBC’s cable channel America’s Talking, which was converted into MSNBC, and agreed to cover $250 million of the channel’s annual costs. The partners planned to combine NBC’s newsgathering with Microsoft’s technology and launch both a cable news channel and a news website.⁠[1][1][2]

On July 15, 1996, the MSNBC cable channel and website of the same name officially launched; the website was inaccessible for the first hour because Microsoft was still loading it with content. That evening NBC anchor Tom Brokaw interviewed President Clinton on the MSNBC talk show InterNight, drawing on 7,000 question suggestions submitted by internet users. MSNBC was the first major challenger to CNNCNNCNN (Cable News Network) is an Atlanta-based news organization founded by Ted Turner on June 1, 1980, as the world’s first 24-hour television news channel. It has been owned in turn by Turner Broadcasting System, Time Warner, AT&T and Warner Bros. Discovery, became part of Skydance Corporation along with Warner Bros. Discovery in October 2026, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry in its 16 years and launched in about 22 million homes because it took over the cable slots of America’s Talking; its headquarters were in Fort Lee, New Jersey, and Microsoft chairman Bill Gates joined by satellite from the Redmond, Washington, newsroom.⁠[1][3][3][3][3][3][3][3]

MSNBC’s early prime-time lineup centered on The News with Brian Williams, the technology program The Site and InterNight, hosted in rotation by Katie Couric, Bob Costas, Tom Brokaw and others, and from September 3, 1996, it simulcast Don Imus’s morning radio show.⁠[1][4][4]

Eight months after launch, MSNBC.com was named the number one general news site in the United States. The cable channel reached 38 million households by August 1997, with coverage of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, boosting viewership; MSNBC then dropped The Site, hired ESPN’s Keith Olbermann and Charles Grodin to host shows, and stepped up coverage of sensational stories. In January 1999, amid the Monica Lewinsky scandal and President Clinton’s impeachment trial, Fox News’ prime-time household viewership surpassed MSNBC’s. By January 2000, 52 million cable households could watch MSNBC.⁠[1][1][1][1][1]

By February 2005 MSNBC’s headquarters were in Secaucus, New Jersey, and from February 7 Don Imus’s morning show began broadcasting from there.⁠[5]

In December 2005 Microsoft sold a controlling stake in the MSNBC cable channel to NBC Universal, raising NBC Universal’s stake to 82% and giving it full management control along with an option to buy Microsoft’s remaining stake within two years; the MSNBC.com website remained a 50-50 joint venture. The channel had turned profitable the year before and was carried in 85 million homes, but it still trailed Fox News and CNN in the ratings, in third and sometimes fourth place.⁠[6][6][6][6][6][6]

Former ESPN sportscaster Keith Olbermann returned to MSNBC in 2003 to host Countdown and drew attention for his feud with Fox News’ Bill O’Reilly and his commentaries criticizing the Bush administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war; by February 2007 he had helped give MSNBC its best competitive position ever against CNN. In July 2008 NBC News senior vice president Phil Griffin became president of MSNBC; the network’s prime-time ratings had risen 54% over the previous year.⁠[7][7][7][8][8]

On September 8, 2008, liberal political commentator Rachel Maddow, nine months after joining MSNBC, launched The Rachel Maddow Show, which averaged 1.64 million viewers in its first weeks, more than double the audience for that hour in the previous eight months, the best launch of a new show in MSNBC’s history.⁠[9][9][9]

In October 2010 MSNBC launched its “Lean Forward” branding campaign; president Phil Griffin said the slogan meant being active and positive and making tomorrow better than today, and that it would define MSNBC. The ads featured hosts including Joe Scarborough, Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann, Rachel Maddow, Lawrence O’Donnell and Ed Schultz.⁠[10][10][10][10]

In February 2021 Rashida Jones, senior vice president of NBC News and MSNBC, succeeded Phil Griffin as president of MSNBC.⁠[11][11]

On November 20, 2024, Comcast announced plans to spin off most of its cable channels, including MSNBC, CNBCCNBCCNBC is an American business and financial news cable channel launched by NBC in 1989; it merged with its rival FNN in 1991 and since January 2026 has been part of Versant Media Group, spun off from Comcast.Open the full entry and USA Network, in a tax-free transaction into an independent public company owned by its shareholders and led by NBCUniversal media group chairman Mark Lazarus; the NBC broadcast network and NBC News would stay with Comcast. Lazarus told MSNBC staff that day that he was not sure whether MSNBC would have to change its name and could not say whether a newsgathering unit separate from NBC would have to be built from scratch.⁠[12][12][12][12][13][13]

On January 14, 2025, Rashida Jones announced she was stepping down as president of MSNBC, with Rebecca Kutler, senior vice president for content strategy, serving as interim president; Lazarus said at the time that MSNBC would keep its name after the spin-off. On February 12 Kutler, a former CNN executive who joined MSNBC in 2022, was named president and tasked with building an independent newsgathering operation. In February MSNBC fired Joy Reid, host of The ReidOut, as part of a programming shake-up, with her final show airing on February 24; Kutler thanked her for her contributions in a memo, and Reid expressed gratitude and said she was “not sorry” for being outspoken on issues including the Black Lives Matter movement and the war in Gaza.⁠[11][11][11][14][14][14][15][15][15][15]

On August 18, 2025, MSNBC announced that it would be renamed MS NOW, short for My Source for News, Opinion and the World, and drop NBC’s peacock logo; executives concluded that keeping the old name would create brand confusion with NBC News. Kutler wrote in a memo that NBCUniversal had decided the brand required a new, separate identity, allowing the channel to assert its independence. The letters “MS” were kept because they came from the original Microsoft partnership and because many viewers already used them as shorthand.⁠[16][16][16][17][17]

From October 6, 2025, NBC News correspondents no longer appeared on MSNBC, and after October 20 MSNBC had to produce its news independently under its own editorial standards, hiring NBC News journalists such as Ken Dilanian. On the morning of November 15 the channel officially became MS NOW, with host Jonathan Capehart telling viewers: “Same mission, new name.” Its website became MS.NOW, MSNBC.com redirected there, and its shows no longer streamed on Comcast’s Peacock.⁠[18][18][18][19][19][19][19]

On January 2, 2026, Versant Media Group completed its separation from Comcast and became an independent public company, with MS NOW joining CNBC, USA Network and others under Versant. As of the end of 2025, MS NOW provided politics, news and opinion programming through cable, digital, social platforms, podcasts and live events, reaching about 59 million U.S. households.⁠[20][21][21]

In February 2026 MS NOW reached a deal with the progressive outlet Crooked Media to air a weekly compilation show, Crooked on MS NOW, on Saturdays from February 28; MS NOW already had 20 original podcasts. In July 2026 MS NOW averaged 1.017 million prime-time viewers, second among news channels.⁠[22][22][22][23]

At its investor day in December 2025, Versant announced that MS NOW would launch a direct-to-consumer subscription service aiming to be “a home for progressives on digital.” On September 9, 2026, MS NOW launched its first direct-to-consumer subscription service, MS NOW Membership, priced at $7.99 a month or $79.99 a year, letting viewers watch the live channel without a pay-TV subscription and offering members daily midday and early-evening video Q&As with hosts and reporters, including weekly questions for Rachel Maddow on Mondays. Kutler called it the first step in a long-term strategy to deepen the network’s relationship with its audience.⁠[24][24][25][25][26][26][25]

On September 18, 2026, Trump announced that he was banning CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House over what he called “fake news” reporting. On September 19 MS NOW reporter Akayla Gardner and reporters from CNN and Politico were denied entry to the White House by the Secret Service, which seized their press passes; CNN and MS NOW were also blocked from using their television equipment and camera positions on the grounds. On September 21 the three outlets sued the Trump administration in federal district court in Washington, D.C., alleging violations of the First Amendment and due process; the outlets said the White House had revoked their journalists’ credentials without notice or process because it objected to their reporting.⁠[27][28][28][28][28]

In court the Justice Department argued that the three outlets did not meet “minimum requirements of professionalism” and defended the ban on national security grounds; the reporting it cited included an MS NOW report that Trump aides had considered adding the president’s name to Ford’s Theatre, which Trump denied on Truth Social, and a story quoting an anonymous White House official as saying the president had underestimated Iran’s willingness to resume the war. On September 24 Judge Timothy Kelly issued a temporary restraining order and the White House restored the outlets’ credentials. On October 13 Kelly issued a preliminary injunction, finding that the outlets were likely to succeed on their due process claim and both First Amendment claims and that the government’s national security rationale came after the fact; the ban had affected 78 reporters. A White House official said the administration would appeal, saying the “Fake News” had no place demanding a spot in the president’s Oval Office, and on October 14 the Justice Department filed a notice of appeal to the D.C. Circuit on Trump’s behalf.⁠[29][30][30][31][30][31][31][30][32]

MS NOW is not part of the White House television pool made up of ABCABCABC (American Broadcasting Company) is an American commercial broadcast television network. It grew out of NBC’s Blue radio network, took its name after becoming independent in 1943, developed into a national television network after merging with United Paramount Theatres in 1953, was acquired by Capital Cities in 1985, and has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. With CBS and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks, and it is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry, CBSCBSCBS is an American commercial broadcast television network. It was founded in 1927 as United Independent Broadcasters, renamed the Columbia Broadcasting System in 1928, and grew from a radio network into a television network under William S. Paley. With ABC and NBC it is one of the three traditional U.S. broadcast networks; it has been owned in turn by Westinghouse, Viacom, ViacomCBS and Paramount Global, has been owned by Paramount Skydance Corporation since 2025, and is one of the five networks that rotate in the White House television pool.Open the full entry, CNN, FOX NewsFOX NewsFOX News is a U.S. television and digital news media brand centered on FOX News Channel and owned by Fox Corporation, with operations spanning news reporting, political commentary and digital content.Open the full entry and NBC, and it was not a target of the Justice Department’s October antitrust investigation into the pool’s suspension; Trump nonetheless later complained that CNN and MS NOW had not covered Xi Jinping’s White House visit, without mentioning his ban on the two outlets.⁠[33][33][33]

On October 14, 2026, MS NOW correspondent Ken Dilanian, citing two unnamed sources, reported on air that FBI Director Kash Patel had landed in Russia for a meeting; the FBI quickly posted video of Patel at Liberty University in Virginia to rebut the report. Two hours later Dilanian corrected the report on air, saying Patel had not landed in Russia and remained in the United States, and added, “we regret this error.” Patel wrote on X that MS NOW owed an apology to the FBI and the American people.⁠[34][34][34][34][34][34]

MS NOW: Official website: https://www.ms.now/ (opens in a new window).⁠[35][36]

X: Public account: https://x.com/MSNOWNews (opens in a new window)⁠[35]