MSNBC is rebranding to MS NOW, but Microsoft’s influence lingers. A look at the history of Microsoft’s role, and how the “MS” lives on.

Cable news channel MSNBC will rebrand as My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, according to internal memos seen by Reuters today, as parent Comcast presses ahead with the planned separation of many NBCUniversal cable networks later this year.

Television’s MSNBC news network is changing its name to My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW for short, as part of its corporate divorce from NBC.

MSNBC will soon have a new name and look. The network announced it will rebrand as MS NOW - short for "My Source News Opinion World" - by the end of the year. The change comes as MSNBC splits from NBCUniversal in a $7 billion spinoff deal that will create a new media company

The change marks the end of a partnership that began in 1996, with the network joining CNBC and other channels under the new VERSANT umbrella.

The rebranding — which stands for My Source for News, Opinion, and the World — comes as Comcast spins off several of its cable networks into a new company called Versant. The change will drop both the NBC name and the peacock logo from MSNBC 's branding.

Many people thought the new name sounded more like a discontinued form of software, a tragic disease or a channel devoted to "Martin Scorsese 'n' Olivia Wilde."

Cable news channel MSNBC is going to rebrand as My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, according to a new report from the New York Times. The change is happening because Comcast’s NBCUniversal is spinning off many of its cable TV assets into a new company called Versant, severing ties with the “NBC” part of MSNBC.

MSNBC will divorce itself from the NBC branding and rename itself “MS NOW” when the channel is spun out by Comcast and relaunched under Versant’s ownership, the company announced on Monday.