Dropping The MS From MSNBC? -- Microsoft Set To Quit MSNBC News Channel

(From The New York Post/The Drudge Report)

All-news cable channel MSNBC is changing its name, according to reports.

The new channel will be called NBC NEWS CHANNEL, according to the Internet's DRUDGE REPORT -- apparently losing its connection to software giant Microsoft.

The change has long been rumored to be in the works.

THE MICROSOFT CORPORATION -- which at one time had both a news television channel and a leading online newsmagazine -- is ready to divorce NBC News and depart MSNBC.

MSNBC is said to roughly break even -- it has never been terribly profitable. Microsoft quit its online magazine, SLATE, in December, selling the venerable but also underperforming site to THE WASHINGTON POST COMPANY.

The cable news and Internet venture between Microsoft Corporation and the NBC NETWORK, didn't achive profitability until the second quarter of 2001. It was launched in July 1996, shortly after FOX NEWS CHANNEL, which far exceeded profitability expectations, and left MSNBC a distant third to FOX and CNN.

In March, it was reported that NBC and Microsoft (the "MS" part of MSNBC) were negotiating to sever their nine-year partnership for the channel. Talks centered around NBC taking sole control of the news company, with Microsoft having rights to use some of its online news content.

Details of the final arrangement have not yet been released.

"The new name is cleaner, less confusing and represents the programming," Drudge quoted an insider as saying.

No word on when the change might come.

An MSNBC spokeswoman Sunday labeled the report "nothing more than an Internet rumor."

The channel has been mired in third place in the ratings behind FOX NEWS CHANNEL and CNN for years, and the hoped-for synergy between the channel and online MSNBC.com never really materialized.

NBC reportedly was eager to run the network alone -- without having to deal with a partner.

The network struggled to establish a personality of its own distinct and separate from its rivals.

Unlike FOX and CNN -- where each network is an end in itself -- MSNBC has never been able to shake the image of being a farm team for NBC broadcast news.

Microsoft is said to have been paying about $30 million a year to cover its end of the losses. Last year was said to be its first profitable one.