Microsoft kills MSNBC cable channel

SOFTWARE GIANT Microsoft has ended another failed experiment at trying to get into the telly business.

Vole will dump all its interest in the MSNBC cable news channel, while NBC will continue to run the station by itself over the next two years. Vole keeps joint control of MSNBC.com, which it uses as the MSN news feed.

However, what is funny about the whole thing is that it was done over Christmas when few hacks will have been working. The offices of Vole, NBC, and MSNBC were all shut and there was no way for those poor hacks and hackettes rostered on over the holiday weekend to get more information.

The New York Times said that it had attempted to reach representatives for both Microsoft and NBC in order to get comments about the event. The NBC representative listed in the announcement was on holiday until Tuesday, a SpokesVole was said to be "at an airport with two toddlers ready to fly home for the holiday."

Sounds like a classic case of bury the bad news when people are too busy with Crimbo to care. There is a fair bit to bury. MSNBC has struggled since it was formed in 1995. It had competition from CNN and Fox News. Vole has since said that it would have never started MSNBC if it had known how badly it would turn out.

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