Death Knell? Comcast Spinning Off MSNBC Could Not Come at a Worse Time for the Struggling Progressive Network

Shortly before Comcast confirmed a Wall Street Journal report about it spinning off MSNBC, CNBC, and other cable properties into a new entity, Morning Joe co-hosts J0e Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski awkwardly joked that they could be fired next year or even tomorrow.

What was clearly intended as a light moment of confidence came across as an awkward acknowledgment of an uncomfortable reality, one that may ultimately prove prescient. Serious questions about the viability of the progressive network remain unanswered, and it is now under intense scrutiny from a new set of executives eager to right a ship that has been seriously struggling over the past few months.

It wasn’t that long ago that MSNBC was riding high on nearly wall-to-wall coverage of former President Donald Trump’s hush money fraud trial earlier this year. For the better part of the last decade, the opiniontainment network has devoted almost all of its programming to warning about the consequences of empowering Trump.

Of course, just three weeks ago, Trump was reelected, and now, judging by its sharp decline in ratings, MSNBC’s once passionate audience has left in droves. Apathy and/or acceptance of a new norm have led to far fewer viewers tuning in. Combined with the existential threat of cord-cutters and a stunning decline in set-top box cable provider subscription fees, the future does not look so rosy.

So, in this context, the relatively sudden, almost rushed announcement that Comcast was washing its hands of this business model feels far less like a business opportunity for growth and more like an attempt to get rid of a business model that seems destined for decline.

The consummately practical Comcast CEO Brian Roberts seemed to tip his hand on how he would welcome a potentially aggressive Trump administration when his Chief Legal Officer, Tom Reid, released a statement regarding Trump’s appointment of Commissioner Brendan Carr as Chairman of the FCC:

Commissioner Carr’s successful track record at the FCC and his extensive knowledge of the communications industry are vital to the continued success of America’s digital future. We congratulate him on his appointment and commend President-elect Trump on his choice. We welcome Commissioner Carr’s continued leadership on important issues like broadband investment and deregulation and look forward to working with him and the rest of the Commission to maintain our country’s leadership in global communications.

Carr is a controversial appointee in progressive circles for various reasons — namely, his work on the FCC chapter for Project 2025 — but this statement clearly signals that Roberts wants nothing to do with Trump’s hostility. Critics (like the regular talking heads on MSNBC) may say this shows cowardice, but a much more charitable description is “dispassionate pragmatism.”

If the Journal‘s report about Comcast spinning MSNBC and its other cable properties off were to come at nearly any other time, it would feel like standard operating M&A-style procedure. But add in the terrible ratings since the election and four-plus years of progressive programming that now looks remarkably out of touch and divisive in hindsight and suddenly, the MSNBC programming value proposition does not look especially valuable.

So, it’s difficult not to see this moment as a fin de siecle for MSNBC and maybe the cable news industry in general. Is it the death knell teased in the headline? Who knows! And yes, that’s a bit of hyperbole that should not be viewed with any schadenfreude. There are hundreds of smart and hard-working people working at MSNBC and its competitors; a threat to their livelihoods is not to be ridiculed or taken lightly.

Based on initial reports of discussions within the network, I don’t know many details about what this spin-off will entail, but neither does anyone else. Variety’s Brian Steinberg revealed details that should not lend any confidence to the current rank-and-file at MSNBC. Steinberg explained how the head of the new entity, Mark Lazarus, recently met with some top talent and was not able to answer some fundamental questions about what was to unfold. Steinberg wrote:

The cable-news outlet could have to consider changing its name and familiar markings under a spin-off of the bulk of the cable assets of parent company Comcast, one of the nascent company’s new top executives suggested to an assemblage of MSNBC staffers Wednesday morning, according to two people familiar with the gathering.

Lazarus told an audience that included Rachel Maddow, Chris Jansing and Katy Tur that he was not sure whether MSNBC would have to change its identity as part of the transaction, which will split the cable network and its business-news sibling CNBC from NBC News and NBCUniversal. If the two networks are no longer part of the NBC corporate entity, attendees wanted to know, will they still be able to carry marks that are part of their former home?

Steinberg also revealed that during the meeting, “Lazarus described the new company as ‘a well-funded start-up,’ these people said, and indicated the new entity would have a presence in Manhattan, but noted that executives weren’t certain at present where the corporation would be based.”

These details do not suggest that there is a well-developed plan. In fact, they suggest a hasty, rash, and reactive decision to create immediate distance from an anti-Trump network just months before he is to take the oath of office. The report that the new company has a placeholder name of “SpinCo,” meanwhile, feels like it’s been ripped straight out of an episode of 30 Rock. Honestly, why not go all in and name the parent company Scheinhardt Wigs?

MSNBC has had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad couple of weeks. The ones ahead don’t look any better for a network that has painted itself into a partisan corner and is now paying the price for having done so.