MSNBC To Change Name To MS NOW Under Versant

MSNBC will change its name to My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW) and unveil a new logo later this year as part of the cable news channel’s spinoff from the Comcast-owned media company NBCUniversal.

Comcast announced last year that it would spin off most of its cable television networks into a separate publicly traded company called Versant. The new company will include MSNBC and the financial news channel CNBC as well as the USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel.

The branding changes represent Versant’s emphasis on “building our individual identity and vision for the future while laying a foundation for the continued growth and success of our businesses,” Versant CEO Mark Lazarus said in a memo to staff Monday morning.

“The peacock is synonymous with NBCUniversal, and it is a symbol they have decided to keep within the NBCU family,” Lazarus said. “This gives us the opportunity to charge our own path forward, create distinct brand identities, and establish an independent news organization following the spin.”

MSNBC President Rebecca Kutler said the network will not change editorial direction as it builds out its own newsgathering operation entirely separate from NBC News. (MSNBC launched in 1996 as a joint venture between NBC News and Microsoft.)

“While our name will be changing, who we are and what we do will not,” Kutler said in an internal memo. “Our commitment to our work and our audiences will not waiver from what the brand promise has been for three decades.”

The rebrand will be accompanied by a national marketing campaign “unlike anything we have done in recent memory,” Kutler said.

CNBC, for its part, will keep the acronym “Consumer News and Business Channel” but will debut a new logo without the peacock.

Comcast will retain NBCUniversal assets such as the NBC broadcast network, NBC News, NBC Sports, the streaming platform Peacock and the cable brand Bravo.

NBCUniversal's Spinoff Company Versant Unveils It's Content Slate For 2025/6 Season

NBCUniversal’s spin-off company Versant has revealed its first programming slate, with 16 new titles in the pipeline for 2025/26 including new scripted originals for cablenets Syfy and USA Network and unscripted titles for E! and Oxygen True Crime.

USA Network ordered The Rainmaker, a legal drama from Lionsgate Television and Blumhouse Television based on a John Grisham novel of the same name. The series follows a law school graduate who ends up uncovering two connected conspiracies surrounding the mysterious death of a client’s son.

Anna Pigeon, based on the bestselling novels by Nevada Barr, was also greenlit by USA Network. Produced by Cineflix Studios and December Films, the project follows a former city slicker who becomes a park ranger and turns her attentions to solving crimes that have taken place within national park grounds. Morwyn Brebner is showrunner.

USA Network also commissioned Everything On The Menu with Braun Strowman (WWE Studios and BrightNorth Studios), a culinary series following the WWE wrestler as he eats his way across America.

Syfy commissioned a zombie series based on comic series Revival, produced by Blue Ice Pictures and Hemmings Films. The project is set in a world where zombies are revived and appear and act just like they did before. The cast includes Melanie Scrofano, Romy Weltman, David James Elliott and Andy McQueen.

E! Commissioned unscripted titles Kimora: Back in the Fab Lane (Hartbeat), Plastic Surgery Rewind (Fulwell Entertainment), Honestly Cavallari: The Headline Tour (32 Flavors) and three instalments in a new franchise called Dirty Rotten Scandals focused on the dark side of America’s Next Top Model, the Dr Phil Show and The Price is Right.

Oxygen True Crime ordered The Death Investigator with Barbara Butcher (Wolf Entertainment), murder mystery series The Killer Among Us hosted by Alan Cumming, The Death Row Informant (Wolf Entertainment, Fireside Pictures, Universal Television Alternative Studios, Vanity Fair Studios), The Silent Serial Killer: Gretzler (Glass Entertainment), Killer Grannies (Jarrett Creative) and The Boston Stranglers (This is Just a Test).

Versant, set to be spun off from Comcast by the end of the year, consists of USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Oxygen True Crime, E!, Syfy and Golf Channel, in addition to digital assets Fandango, Rotten Tomatoes, GolfNow and SportsEngine. The programming team for the company was confirmed last week.

“Our audiences are among the most devoted in the industry, and their passion fuels everything we do,” said Versant’s president of entertainment Val Boreland. “By uniting the power of our iconic brands with a commitment to bold, original storytelling, we’re deepening our connection with viewers in meaningful ways. We’re proud to unveil this exciting new programming slate as we move forward under our new name.”

E! Entertainment, CNBC And Various Other Channels From NBCUniversal To Fold Under New Company Called Versant

The spinoff of Comcast‘s cable networks has a name: Versant.

Mark Lazarus, who will lead the new unit, wrote in a memo to staffers, “Versant represents more than a name – it speaks to our adaptability and embraces the opportunity to shape a new, modern media company. There were many considerations for a suitable name. Our internal team of incredibly skilled and experienced brand marketers, designers and media tacticians took into account our overarching goal to influence culture, connect communities and signify a unified direction forward.”

Since the spinoff of MSNBC, CNBC and other cable networks was announced last year, the entity has gone by SpinCo.

Lazarus added, “We would be foolish to expect everyone to love the name of our new company immediately. There were certainly some others that we could have gotten behind, but after sitting with Versant for a couple of weeks now, I believe it will suit us well, evoke a sense of energy, and underscore our role in driving progress.”

Lazarus also said that the company headquarters would be in Manhattan.

Other networks included in the spinoff, expected to be completed later this year, are USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY, and Golf Channel.

With NBC News no longer a sister network, MSNBC has been building up a news division. Yet to be announced is how the network plans to approach streaming. MSNBC shows had appeared on Peacock, but that platform will remain in the Comcast fold.

The choice of a media company name invites quick reaction and judgment, especially in an era when so many entities choose uncommon words, like Axios and Semafor, or a partial anagram, like Tegna, from its spinoff from Gannett. Some names have been outright duds, most prominently Tronc, the name given to Tribune Publishing in 2016 only to be dropped two years later.

According an audio announcement from brand marketers Lisa Fleming and Mike DeRienzo, thousands of names were considered, but only 43 passed “preliminary knockout.” Of that, 25 were cleared domestically. That was narrowed to 12 finalists that were presented to the leadership team.

The field of options continued to narrow, with a top three selected to go through international clearance. All three did.

They then went into “design exploration,” including logos. “After months of presentations and conversations, a clear winner rose to the top, and that was Versant,” DeRienzo said. Versant actually is a real word, meaning the slope of a mountain. “It says strength, forward movement,” he said.

By contrast, MSNBC will retain its name, even though NBC will no longer be part of the network. The “MS” stood for Microsoft, as the network initially was joint venture with Microsoft. The tech giant sold its stake in 2005.