You’ve gotta love a complete lack of corporate oversight, especially when it involves… snowmobiles? In a sweeping rebrand of their news channel, MSNBC changed its name to My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, according to a new report from The New York Times.
Apparently, the change is occurring because NBCUniversal is converting a number of its cable television outlets into a new company, Versant, which effectively severs its ties with the NBC portion of MSNBC. Whatever that means.
But if you go looking for MS NOW on the interwebs, perhaps dialing up msnow.com on your browser, you won’t find a rebranded corporate news broadcast, but instead you’ll land on a site registered in Gyeonggi, South Korea, that’s promoting snowmobiles. Yes, snowmobiles.
According to Variety, MSNBC had planned to keep its name, but NBCUniversal decided to retain ownership of its “peacock” design and doesn’t want the bird branding being used elsewhere. Meanwhile, CNBC will keep its name because it translates to ‘Consumer News and Business Channel,’ and isn’t connected to the National Broadcasting Company, and its big colorful bird.
That leaves the question of where the digital home of MS NOW will be. As of this moment, the most obvious domain, msnow.com, is busy explaining what snowmobiles are to South Korean snow sports enthusiasts.
According to a report on Gizmodo, a Google Translate of the current landing page reads like filler text for Korean snowmobiles: “A snowmobile is a vehicle that travels on snow. Equipped with skis and tracked wheels, it is used for winter recreation and transportation. Also known as a motor sled or snow machine. In Korea, it is used for maintenance, rescue operations, and cargo transport at ski resorts and other locations.”
We love snowmobiles!
And unless MS NOW can sort out the 'whois' for their desired domain, we suspect they’re going to have to learn to love them, too. Oh! And the social media handles for MSNOW? Those are also occupied by folks that, while not selling snowmobiles, have nothing to do with the corporate news giant or its affiliates. Seems like NBCUniversal didn’t do their homework before announcing a rebranding of one of their biggest news channels. That, or they’re diversifying their interests and we’re about to see a major player in the powersports media market?! I’m going with the former.
Sometimes the smallest stones make the biggest splash.
