MSNBC is changing its name to MS NOW and dropping its peacock logo as part of the cable channel's spinoff from Comcast's NBC Universal.

The name change was ordered by NBC Universal, which last November spun off cable networks USA, CNBC, MSNBC, E! Entertainment, Oxygen, and the Golf Channel into its own company, called Versant.

Cable news channel MSNBC will rebrand as My Source News Opinion World, or MS NOW, according to internal memos seen by Reuters on Monday, as parent Comcast presses ahead with the planned separation of many NBCUniversal cable networks later this year.