MSNBC is changing its name to MS NOW (short for My Source for News Opinion and the World). MSNBC will have a new name as it seeks to carve out an identity that will have it competing for scoops and news with current corporate sibling NBC News following the spin-off of the bulk… pic.twitter.com/3QOvpP8ZBL

The name change came as a surprise to many, even those within the network who had previously been told that the MSNBC name would continue. Versant’s CEO Mark Lazarus told The Wall Street Journal that the rebranding, which will also erase NBC’s peacock from the properties being spun off, would help prevent “brand confusion.”

Morning Joe hosts claim they love it. Everyone else says it sounds like a multiple-sclerosis charity with MS Paint branding.

Now, MSNBC is MS NOW. As MSNBC leaves NBCUniversal for Versant (fka SpinCo.), the cable news channel is rebranding to an acronym that stands for My Source for News, Opinion and the World. Right, so the MS no longer stands for Microsoft, but it’s still there.

MSNBC will change its name to My Source News Opinion World (MS NOW) in its spinoff from Comcast’s NBCUniversal, The

MSNBC will change its name to MS Now, for My Source News Opinion World, and unveil a new logo this year as part of the cable news channel’s spinoff from the Comcast-owned media company NBCUniversal. CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin joins Joe Scarborough to break the news.

Its logo will change from NBC’s trademark rainbow peacock to a blue background with a red-and-white striped flag.

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.