• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, 5 hours ago

Will this hurt viewership and its business prospects?

NBC says this is not an easy decision to make. Plenty of debate and discussions evolved in getting this result, according to executives. You can see the struggle.

Under the new Versant group of spinoff NBC cable TV networks, some analysts are sure to believe that MSNBC will be dinged.

Consider advertising brands currently buying into MSNBC.

Many deals -- but not all -- have been part of an overall NBCUniversal advertising packaging of similar news-oriented content, including “NBC Nightly News,” “Dateline,” “Today,” CNBC, the daily business TV network, NBC News Now, and other properties.

Going for separation now exists for some pieces of continued bundling for MSNBC. Soon after the initial spinoff announcement, NBCUniversal struck a two-year deal with Versant group to continue to sell advertising under its One Platform banner.

So then what was the key deciding argument for the change? NBCU is not pointing in a specific direction. Perhaps history can help us out.

Back in 2005, Microsoft made a decision to pull out its equity stake in MSNBC -- the "MS" part of the MSNBC brand name references Microsoft and its joint venture with NBCUniversal when MSNBC was initially launched in 1996.

It was decided in 2005 that although Microsoft would not be a partner, executives believed they could keep the network's name because it was an established media brand.

The change to MSNBC will not be made to its sister network CNBC -- partly due to the logic of its initial start, where it was referred to as the "Consumer News and Business Channel."

The bottom line, according to Versant CEO Mark Lazarus, was that because “our brand requires a new, separate identity” it should pursue its own course.

That might not sound convincing enough in a fast-moving legacy TV/streaming world.

Look at what Warner Bros. Discovery recently did with its five-year-old premium streaming service. At launch in 2020, it was called HBO Max. But then, with WBD's executives believing the service was more than just HBO content -- Discovery Channel, HGTV, CNN and others being included -- the company dropped the "HBO" moniker part in 2023, leaving it to become just "Max."

But now in a tougher streaming marketplace, it believed that was a mistake as well. The topline "HBO" name carries way too much marketing punch, and the platform returned earlier this year to HBO Max.

Creating established and thriving media brands is a hard enough job. Alternating a brand name -- even a little -- can be harmful.

Look at one established social media brand. While questionable senior management moves and social media posts should be factored in, maybe ‘X’ shouldn’t have changed from ‘Twitter’.

Changing MSNBC to a vague, less-than-impactful MS NOW, might seem to suggest more of a possible fumble: MS MISS?