Microsoft Leaving MSNBC TV Partnership

pnewhook writes to tell us The New York Times is reporting that Microsoft and NBC have announced that they will be dissolving their joint cable TV news channel, MSNBC, with NBC retaining control. From the article: "NBC has completed a deal to assume majority control of the channel immediately, with an 82 percent stake, and it will become the sole owner within two years, NBC executives said yesterday. The two companies did not disclose financial terms of the deal. But the partners will continue their 50-50 ownership of the MSNBC Web site, which, partly as a consequence of its affiliation with Microsoft, is the most-used news site on the Internet."

Comments

Re:Over a barrel?

[dubsyngin]

actual link to the BBC Story bbc story

Most used news site on the Internet?

[elvum]

The MSNBC Web site... is the most-used news site on the Internet.

Sez who? Alexa.com puts it orders of magnitude below the BBC News website, for example.

Re:Most used news site on the Internet?

[badasscat]

Sez who? Alexa.com puts it orders of magnitude below the BBC News website, for example.

Alexa is ranking bbc.co.uk, not the news site specifically. Alexa only distinguishes TLD's.

It would be the same thing if MSNBC numbers were counted as a part of the NBC web site, but they're not. MSNBC gets counted individually (because there is an "msnbc.com" TLD) and also as part of MSN's results (because MSNBC redirects to msnbc.msn.com).

The question is how many people get MSNBC news through MSN vs. manually typing in "www.msnbc.com" (or typing "msnbc" and hitting ctrl-enter). Myself, I type it in, but I suspect most people are just going to MSN.

So it's impossible to compare msnbc.com's numbers with news.bbc.co.uk's numbers because they're counted totally differently by Alexa. MSN itself has a much higher readership than the BBC as a whole, but you don't know what percentage of the users of each actually read the news on those sites.

btw, just related to the whole BBC issue - I find their news both as biased as anyone else and often pretty uninformed. The fact that they're biased more towards a European viewpoint, which may or may not better match the bias of most of the posters here, does not change anything. I also don't see any point whatsoever in linking to them for local stories in the United States, as I see happen often here - they are writing completely devoid of context. It is, specifically, incredibly annoying to me as a New Yorker when I see anyone link to them for a story about this city, because they always completely ignore the background issues at play, and are always writing with a skewed, bemused viewpoint that suggests "this isn't the way we do things in London!"

I would prefer it if article submitters would link to news sources with a better handle on the context of the stories they're reporting.

Re:being a 'Brit'

[oberondarksoul]

The BBC is hardly a 'mouthpiece for the Government' - while it receives funding in the form of the licence fee it has a duty to be impartial and not simply tell the news as the Government wants it.

As for the 'Brit' term, I have no problem with it - I'm English, and British. Being called either is fine with me. "English" just denotes me as being from a specific country within the UK, whereas British indicates I'm from the country as a whole. I don't see the controversy - it's not like calling a Scot an Englishman.

Re:being a 'Brit'

[Wyatt Earp]

"'Britain' isn't a country", really?

Huh, conventional long form: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland; note - Great Britain includes England, Scotland, and Wales http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ uk.html

http://www.visitbritain.com/default.aspx

Calling someone from the United Kingdom's main island, Great Britain, a Brit is like calling someone from the United States of America an American.

You want to be called by your State name, English or other, then let us know where you are from and please ask everyone from the United States of America what State, Commonwealth, Protectorate, District, Indian Reservation, Incorporated Territory or Unincorperated Territory they are from and refer to us properly too. I'm a South Dakotan from the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation.