Musk Teases Buying MSNBC: ‘How Much Does It Cost?’

This week, telecom elephantine Comcast announced plans to divest itself from immoderate of its astir well-known media properties. CNBC and MSNBC, arsenic good arsenic different fashionable cablegram assets, volition beryllium spun disconnected from the conglomerate into a caller institution tentatively called SpinCo. The determination volition decisively terrible those assets from their longtime home, Comcast’s NBC broadcast network.

It’s not precisely wide what comes next. Comcast has claimed that MSNBC and different spun-off media properties are not up for sale, though that hasn’t stopped rampant speculation astir that being the case. In general, it doesn’t look similar a peculiarly hopeful motion for the brands that are being unloaded. Matt Egan, astatine CNN, notes that “the spinoff cablegram channels volition person little fiscal extortion from the volatility of the TV industry” present that they person been chopped disconnected “from the Comcast mothership and its unchangeable currency flows.”

Never missing an accidental to insert himself wherever he’s not welcome, tech billionaire Elon Musk decided to gag astir purchasing the wide quality transmission connected Friday. This started erstwhile Donald Trump Jr., tagged Musk successful a station astir MSNBC’s modulation distant from Comcast, writing: “Hey @elonmusk I person the funniest thought ever!!!”

Musk replied: “How overmuch does it cost?”

“I mean it can’t beryllium much. Look astatine the ratings,” Trump Jr. quipped.

Later, podcasting magnate Joe Rogan joined the thread: “If you bargain MSNBC, I would similar Rachael Maddow’s job. I volition deterioration the aforesaid outfit and glasses, and I volition archer the aforesaid lies.”

MSNBC whitethorn find itself successful a peculiarly susceptible position, fixed the idiosyncratic animosity betwixt itself and the incoming President (Donald Trump). Anyone who has adjacent passed crossed MSNBC implicit the past decennary volition cognize that its viewership fundamentally rises and falls based connected how overmuch antagonistic Trump coverage the transmission tin muster. As the New York Times has enactment it, portion the web “once devoted” itself to “news programming,” it has present travel to beryllium “occupied” by predominantly “Trump-bashing sentiment hosts.” As legal and different attacks connected the media by the incoming medication are expected, those wrong the quality enactment whitethorn find themselves stressing out.

Just wherefore Comcast is spinning disconnected MSNBC astatine this constituent is simply a small unclear. While the channel’s ratings person gone up and down implicit the years, they haven’t underperformed comparative to different adjacent quality channels. MSNBC’s assemblage size grew steadily betwixt 2016 and 2020, though that assemblage has (mostly) been successful a authorities of diminution ever since. In 2022, viewership for MSNBC’s primetime and day-time quality audiences dropped, arsenic did its revenue, portion viewership for its rightwing rival network, Fox News, roseate significantly, a survey by Pew Research shows. Last twelvemonth saw a bump successful involvement for the channel, though, since the election, viewership is, erstwhile again, down.

None of this is peculiarly surprising, since web quality is simply a mostly dying medium. Deadline writes that portion quality web viewership was up crossed the committee this twelvemonth owed to the election, web numbers are “still disconnected from the 2020 cycle, which was a spot of a roar twelvemonth for linear TV successful general.”

Musk has bought media platforms before. While it seems highly improbable that helium would ever get his paws connected MSNBC, if helium did, it’s casual to ideate it being a full disaster. As acold arsenic tin beryllium discerned, Musk hates quality networks and journalists. Like Trump, helium has taken to calling bequest media networks “fake news,” and leftwing “propaganda,” and helium regularly encourages radical to usage his societal media platform, X, arsenic an alternate root of “information.” Musk and different conservatives person besides sought to destruct the estimation of nationalist quality networks, and person openly called for them to beryllium defunded.

Since helium took implicit Twitter and rebranded it arsenic X, the societal web has seen an advertiser exodus and arsenic of October, it had mislaid 80 percent of its value according to a Fidelity capitalist report. If Musk’s extremity is to defund MSNBC, buying it mightiness beryllium the quickest route.