MS NOW

MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) is an American cable news channel owned by Versant. The channel primarily broadcasts rolling news coverage and opinion journalism. Its studios are in Versant's world headquarters at 229 West 43rd Street, New York City. It also maintains a bureau in Washington, D.C., co-located with that of former parent division NBC News, while technical operations are handled from CNBC's studios in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Among cable news channels, the company is ranked second in ratings, well behind Fox News, but ahead of CNN. As of July 2026, The Rachel Maddow Show on MS NOW was the 7th ranked news program by number of viewers; the top 6 were all on Fox News. The channel was established in 1996 as MSNBC, a joint venture between NBC News and Microsoft (with its name being a portmanteau of "MSN" and "NBC") that encompassed the cable channel and the web 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 relaunched to focus on editorial content from the network's personalities and programming. 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 journalism 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...