MSNBC confronts viewer frustration, changes and an identity crisis [View all]
The networks audience has declined since the Nov. 5 election, as viewers have tuned out. Its parent company is spinning it off. What happens next?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/media/2024/11/27/msnbc-ratings-drop-future-spinoff-comcast/
https://archive.ph/lrdZL
Strangely enough, MSNBC was one of the winners on election night. For the first time in its 28-year history, the network brought in more total viewers than CNN, and it was the second-most-watched channel in all of traditional television during the prime-time hours of Nov. 5.
Things have gone downhill since then. In the days that followed, MSNBC began seeing a significant decline in viewership (as has CNN), as left-leaning viewers opted to turn off the channel rather than watch the aftermath of Donald Trumps victory. One of the networks most valuable franchises, Morning Joe,
faced backlash after hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski revealed Nov. 18 that they had traveled to Trumps Mar-a-Lago resort in an effort to restart communications. They framed the visit as a necessary nod to the reality that voters elected a man the co-hosts have decried in the past as exemplifying fascist behaviors. Some viewers felt otherwise and turned off the show in protest in the days that followed.
Forget short-term ratings drops questions about the future of the network picked up considerably Nov. 20, when parent company Comcast announced that it would spin off MSNBC and some of its other cable channels into a separate company. Network bigwigs framed the new entity temporarily called SpinCo as a lean, future-oriented machine that could provide an off-ramp for the declines in traditional television viewership that have shrunk revenue for major broadcast and cable companies. Others saw it as a way to peel off the cable companies that are seen as declining assets, with a potential sale down the road.
Given all this, MSNBC employees are trying to wrap their heads around what it all means and the potential changes ahead. The fear inside the building is about whether the move could portend a less ambitious future for MSNBC with a smaller, lower-compensated staff and a lot less journalism, considering the network will be separated from the NBC News operation that contributes much of the reporting.
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