MS NOW (formerly MSNBC) is an American liberal cable news channel owned by Versant, ranking second in cable news ratings behind Fox News but ahead of CNN. Founded in 1996 as a joint venture between NBC and Microsoft, the network rebranded as MS NOW (a backronym for "My Source [for] News, Opinion, [and the] World") in November 2025 after separating from NBCUniversal during Comcast's corporate spin-off. It began with rolling news coverage but shifted to prominent liberal opinion journalism in the late 2000s with hosts like Rachel Maddow and Keith Olbermann, before pivoting back toward hard news in the mid-2010s. Today, The Rachel Maddow Show is the 7th most-watched news program, with the top six all airing on Fox News. The channel operates from studios in New York City and Washington, D.C., and is distributed via cable, SiriusXM, and a live streaming service.