Musk to buy MSNBC?
November 27, 2024
Broadcasting giant Comcast is spinning off almost all of its cable channels into a new company, including MSNBC, seen by many as a liberal news channel. The others in the bundle include CNBC, USA Network, Oxygen, E!, SYFY and the Golf Channel.
It seems Elon Musk, now with a foot in the door of the Oval Office, fancies himself as a broadcasting entrepreneur and controller of a left-leaning channel that he has criticised in the past. However, as the WSJ has pointed out, the channel isn’t actually for sale – at least not yet.
Musk has previously described MSNBC as “the utter scum of the Earth”.
But at this stage in the Comcast scheme, the channels are being sold as a complete package and not subdivided into individual prospects.
“We are looking forward to the planned spin of our cable networks, which will create a new company owned by our shareholders—none of these assets are for sale,” a Comcast spokeswoman said.
However, financial common sense inevitably comes to mind that if the cash on the table is tempting enough then a deal could be done, and Musk has the cash.
“Media assets themselves have always had sort of political positioning, but now the business of media is getting just as deeply politicised,” said Craig Moffett, a senior analyst and co-founder at MoffettNathanson, talking to the WSJ. “There are only two media entities that Donald Trump dislikes more than CNN. One is MSNBC and the other is NBC.”
Musk has used X to say (in relation to an MSNBC purchase): “Crazy idea, but it just might work!”