Background:

MSNBC is an American cable news network. It is part of NBCUniversal News Group, a division owned by NBCUniversal who is in turn owned by Comcast. Born in 1996 as a partnership between Microsoft and General Electric’s NBC News unit, MSNBC provides news coverage and political commentary. In 2005, Microsoft divested its stakes in MSNBC. MSNBC is headed by Phil Griffin, who has been a part of MSNBC since it’s inception but was promoted to President in 2008. MSNBC reaches more than 96 million households worldwide and runs programming on a 24 hour/ 7 days/ week schedule. MSNBC is broadcast in the US, South Africa, and Turkey and has a large website and SiriusFM Radio following.

NBCUniversal is a media and entertainment giant, of which NBC (National Broadcasting Company) is one of the US’ so-called “Big Three” television networks. It has a significant international and pay television presence. NBCUniversal News Group is headed by Andrew Lack as of 2015, promoted in the wake of the Brian Williams scandal and flagging ratings. It was fully acquired by Comcast in 2013 when Comcast bought out GE’s remaining stocks.

Comcast is an American telecommunications conglomerate and is the largest television and broadcasting company in the world (by revenue). It is the second largest pay-TV company after AT&T, the largest cable TV company and home internet provider in the US as well as the third largest telephone service provider.

Fiscal:

Market Share

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RTsDVry3fW4/Wl_t3cgUykI/AAAAAAAAW7M/wXmJA-mWg4w0-g5Q-7ehhB-qW4oL6rbEwCLcBGAs/s400/MSNBC%2BRevenue.PNG

As of 01/17/2018. Comcast's Q4 and Year End 2017 Revenue Report.

Ad Sponsorship

As of Q4 2017, 30 seconds of ad time on MSNBC cost $3,139.

Political Donations

You can take a look at Comcast here and here.

As of 1/31/2018, Comcast has spent $2,541,098 in political donations.

Comcast Corp. shareholders have (for the fourth time) rejected a proposal that would force it to report how much money it spends lobbying state legislatures and local governments as of June 9, 2017. Comcast has been investigated in the past for murky business practices regarding hiring prominent political figures and their families to high positions within the company. You can read about that here.

Social:

Audience Views

According to a study conducted by Pew Research, MSNBC viewers correlate with more progressive leaning demographics.

“MSNBC (used by 27% of respondents in a typical week) draws significant portions of its audience from across the ideological spectrum. But its overall audience composition skews to the left. Those to the left-of-center make up 49% of its audience (they are 38% of all respondents).” Pew Research Center

Political Views in Correspondents

Media Matters released a 2013 report on diversity in cable news guests. The report calculated that on MSNBC, women made up 33% of guests, 19% of guests were African American and roughly 5% of guests were non-Caucasian or African American.

Diversity

You can check out NBCUniversal’s work on diversity here. Their efforts include a Diversity Council, and numerous internal initiatives as well as supporting diversity in the community at large. Comcast has put robust diversity policies in place, you can read their report on it here. However, MSNBC was under fire for lack of diversity in it’s election coverage culminating in one of it’s anchors (Melissa Harris-Perry) quitting the network. You can read about that in depth here.

Scandals

MSNBC has been accused of Liberal or Leftist Bias. One of their biggest scandals took place in 2010 when they fired host of the popular show Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Keith Olbermann, for violating an NBC company policy which prohibited donating to political causes without getting permission from the company first, for contributing to three Democratic Party candidates. When news of his firing hit the air, there was massive backlash and they reinstated him for a brief time. Two weeks later, the same thing occurred with another anchor, Joe Scarborough (though he was donating to Republican candidates in Florida).

More recently, popular TV anchor Melissa Harris-Perry quit the network over MSNBC’s coverage of the 2016 election.

You can check out some other MSNBC controversies here.

Comcast has a whole slew of scandals to it’s name. They include attempting to destroy the Writer’s Guild after they acquired NBCUniversal, being consistently rated as having terrible customer service, lobbying scandals, and lying about their internet speeds. You can read summaries of them here.

CSR Rating

You can read Comcast’s company produced CSR report here. CSR Hub gives Comcast a score of 51/100 in CSR. They score highest in environmental responsibility. You can check out NBCUniversal’s CSR Wire page here.

Governance:

Governing Board

You can check out Comcast’s governance board policies here, and here.

Shareholders

Leadership

Comcast’s entire leadership team. NBCUniversal’s entire leadership team.

MSNBC’s leadership team is below:

Brian L. Roberts- Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Comcast

Steve Burke- Chief Executive Officer, NBCUniversal & Senior Executive Vice President, Comcast Corporation

He is one of the highest paid CEO’s in America.

Andrew Lack, Chairman, NBC News & MSNBC

Phil Griffin, President, MSNBC, NBC News

As of May, 2017, he signed a new deal to stay on as President.

Nick Ascheim- Senior Vice President, Digital NBC News and MSNBC

Errol Cockfield- Senior Vice President, Communications MSNBC

Jared DiPalma- Chief Financial Officer, NBCUniversal News Group

Deb Finan- Vice President, Production & Programming, MSNBC

Marc Greenstein- Creative Director MSNBC

Mark Kornblau- Senior Vice President, Communications NBCUniversal News Group

Yvette Miley- Senior Vice President and Executive Editor MSNBC

Sharon Otterman- Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer MSNBC

Chris Peña- Senior Executive Producer MSNBC

John Reiss- Executive Producer, Political Programming MSNBC

Michael Rubin- Vice President, Longform Programming and Production MSNBC

Elisabeth Sami- Senior Vice President NBCUniversal News Group

Bill Wolff- Vice President, Primetime Programming MSNBC

Ethics

MSNBC does not have a public journalistic ethics page.

General:

Size

It is unknown how many people are employed by MSNBC, however their LinkedIn estimates that they are in the 501-1000 employees range.

Viewers

MSNBC is broadcast in more than 96 million households worldwide. MSNBC.com was viewed over 33.3 million times between January 18, 2018 and February 18, 2018.

Type of company

Private

Politifact Rating

MSNBC gets lumped in with Politifacts’ NBC rating. 41% of rated statements made by NBC are at least mostly false.

Awards won

Comcast’s awards page. MSNBC has been a recipient of a Peabody award for their coverage of ISIS in 2016. They also won an Emmy award in 2017 for their coverage of the Flint Water Crisis. You can check out a list of awards they have won for 2002 - 2006 here.