Progressive cable news network MS NOW is launching its first direct-to-consumer product Sept. 9 that will give viewers the opportunity to watch Rachel Maddow and its other hosts without a pay-TV subscription.
The Versant-owned channel announced Wednesday that the service, called MS NOW Membership, will also provide an array of digital offerings in addition to a live stream of TV programming. The service is promising to give users the opportunity to interact with the network’s roster of contributors and analysts.
“Our mission has always been to inform, engage and empower our audience,” MS NOW President Rebecca Kutler, said in a statement. “Our Membership is the first step in a long-term strategy to deepen our relationship with audiences in ways that build on what they already value about MS NOW, while addressing what consumers told us was missing from the news experience.”
The MS NOW Membership will be available for $7.99 per month or $79.99 annually. The service will have an introductory rate of $39.99 a year through Sept. 30.
MS NOW is the second most-watched cable news channel, trailing Fox News, and has seen its audience grow in 2026. In July, the network averaged 1.3 million viewers in prime time, up 19% over last year.
But like all cable networks, MS NOW has to manage the loss of pay TV customers, which provide a major source of revenue. The network, formerly known as MSNBC, has never been available without a pay-TV subscription.
CNN has offered a streaming subscription of its channel since October, for $6.99 a month. Fox News is available to subscribers of Fox One, parent company Fox Corporation’s streaming platform which offers its broadcast network and cable channels for $19.99 a month.
MS NOW became part of Versant, a new company made up of NBCUniversal cable channels that were spun off by former owner Comcast. Versant is aiming to wean itself off of the pay-TV business due to the decline in subscribers who have migrated to streaming video.
Digital audiences that may not have cable already consume a significant amount of
MS NOW content. The network says it has 3.2 billion across YouTube and TikTok in 2026 and has had more than 80 million downloads of its podcasts. Comscore data says there is a less than 10% overlap between MS NOW’s TV and digital audiences.
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