Announced with much fanfare in December 1995, the partnership’s financial arrangement called for Microsoft to pay $220 million for 50 percent of NBC’s America’s Talking cable network that was converted to MSNBC, plus $250 million for the network’s annual costs. Well funded and armed with NBC’s newsgathering and Microsoft’s technology resources, MSNBC launched on July 15, 1996.

MSNBC online’s challenges included attracting Internet users to the site and initiating untested interactive video technology to a mass audience. The website’s rollout, supported by cross promotion on Microsoft’s websites and NBC’s television outlets, has been highly successful. MSNBC.com was named the number one general news site on the Web by Internet ratings service PC Meter just eight months after its introduction. It has held that distinction in Jupiter Media Metrix’s Internet ratings for many months since, including all of 1999 and 2000.

MSNBC.com’s leadership position is built on technological and content advantages. The site began with text, graphics, and audio programming. A relaunch in August 1997 improved navigability and added technical capabilities that enabled streaming video news, which has grown in importance as work and more recently home environments have upgraded to broad-band Internet access. Alliances with the websites of dozens of local television and print media, plus respected national outlets such as Newsweek and the Washington Post, have increased the depth and breadth of the site’s content. Highly successful at attracting an audience, MSNBC.com’s financial future is less clear amid the severe post–September 11, 2001, downturn in the online advertising market.

MSNBC cable launched in a respectable 22.5 million cable television homes with support from outdoor and print advertising, plus cross-platform promotion on the NBC broadcast network and Microsoft websites. MSNBC’s acceptance by cable system operators was an early concern, but carriage of the fledgling network grew steadily as agreements were sealed with major cable system operators such as TeleCommunications, Inc. (now AT&T Broadband) and Time Warner Cable.

Programming the network with content cable news viewers find compelling has proved to be more difficult. Hoping to attract younger, Generation X viewers, the network’s initial strategy was to feature well-known NBC News talent on a hip, Starbucks-style set, complete with brick wall and open metalwork. Daytime news coverage was anchored by John Gibson, Jodi Applegate, and John Seigenthaler. Prime-time programming centered on three shows, The News with Brian Williams; The Site, a youth-oriented new media and technology program; and InterNight, a talk show alternatively hosted by Katie Couric, Bob Costas, Tom Brokaw, and others. This schedule was supplemented by repeats of current shows and repurposed content from NBC News.

To fill out its schedule in its first year, a deal was made to simulcast Don Imus’s syndicated radio show weekday mornings. The network began recycling NBC’s Dateline shows, and Time and Again, hosted by Jane Pauley, was created around repackaged NBC programming and old news footage. In addition, John Hockenberry joined MSNBC from the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) to host Edgewise on weekends.

By August 1997, MSNBC was reaching 38 million cable households, and viewership was growing, in part because of the death on August 31 of Diana, Princess of Wales. Nielsen Media Research reported that third-quarter 1997 prime-time ratings for MSNBC averaged 99,000 households compared with 24,000 and 766,000 for FNC and CNN, respectively.

Under growing pressure to build its audience, MSNBC continued molding its program lineup in its second year by pulling the critically acclaimed show The Site and recruiting Keith Olbermann of the Entertainment and Sports Network’s (ESPN’s) Sports Center and Charles Grodin to host their own shows. The network also went “tabloid” with extended coverage and discussion of sensational stories such as the death of JonBenet Ramsey and the sexual activities of broadcaster Marv Albert.

Cable system carriage continued apace, and after two years MSNBC was reaching 42 million households. Competition for viewers among the cable news networks was intensifying, and by January 1999, amid the Monica Lewinsky scandal and President Clinton’s impeachment trial, rival FNC’s prime-time household viewership surpassed MSNBC’s. MSNBC was already reworking its schedule to offset FNC’s fast-growing audience. Keith Olbermann’s Big Show was canceled. John McLaughlin of The McLaughlin Group and Oliver North were recruited to host McLaughlin Special Report and Equal Time, respectively.

In April 1999, MSNBC turned to Mullen Advertising, based in Wenham, Massachusetts, for aid in attracting 25- to 44-year-old viewers. Nevertheless, at its three-year anniversary, MSNBC’s viewership remained a concern to be addressed by yet more programming changes. A prime-time magazine-type tabloid series, Special Edition, debuted with a segment profiling serial killers. Headlines & Legends with Matt Lauer, a biography show, was introduced in an attempt to build prime-time appointment viewing.

By January 2000, 52 million cable households could watch MSNBC, and, as hoped, the network was attracting youthful viewers with an average age of 50 years old compared with 58 for CNN and 56 for FNC. Apparently, attracting a younger audience did little to address MSNBC’s audience shortfall. October 2000’s audience ratings showed that MSNBC still trailed its competitors in prime-time and total day average audience.

The 2000 presidential election and its aftermath benefited all three cable news networks. Viewership was up, and advertising was easier to sell, even with the weakening U.S. economy. MSNBC turned profitable late in 2000, but its second-quarter 2001 primetime viewership averaged just 247,000 homes. FNC averaged 436,000 households and CNN 483,000.

The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center fixated the nation and drove viewership higher. News of anthrax scares and the search for Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan helped retain viewers, but to keep them without a constant stream of breaking news, the cable news services turned to established personalities. CNN lured Paula Zahn from FNC to anchor news. Geraldo Rivera joined FNC as a war correspondent. MSNBC’s entry in this competition was relative unknown Ashleigh Banfield, who attracted notice while covering the 2000 presidential election and earned recognition for her September 11 coverage when she kept reporting at the north tower of the World Trade Center as it collapsed. Unseasoned, irreverent, and fashionable, Banfield was given her own prime-time show, A Region in Conflict, that has taken her to Afghanistan and the Middle East.

For all of 2001, MSNBC reached on average a mere 382,000 prime-time homes versus CNN’s 816,000 and FNC’s 675,000. FNC’s ability to attract viewers further surprised its competitors when it beat CNN in total day and prime-time ratings for January 2002. Ever in search of a programming solution to its viewership quandary, MSNBC hired Alan Keyes, former conservative presidential candidate and author, to host Alan Keyes Is Making Sense. On the other end of the political spectrum, in April 2002, MSNBC signed a contract with former talk show mainstay Phil Donahue to host a prime-time current events program. Donahue had its debut in July 2002, but it was canceled after six months on the air, having consistently placed low in the ratings.

Now available in over 74 million households, MSNBC’s average prime-time audience is less than half of FNC’s and CNN’s. MSNBC also trails distantly in viewership within the coveted 25-to-54 age-group. FNC has distinguished itself as a commentator-driven, viewpoint network, while CNN has long been a reporter-driven news-gathering service. Despite years of programming adjustments, MSNBC continues to struggle with no clear editorial direction.