Parent company Comcast has broken NBCUniversal into two components: its cable channels, including MSNBC, CNBC, E!, Syfy, USA, and Oxygen, will now be a separate public company called Versant. Core holdings such as NBC, Peacock, theme parks, Universal Studios, and Bravo will remain under the Comcast/NBCUniversal name.
This leaves CNBC without the benefit of the familiar NBC peacock icon, which has been part of its logo since 1996. Its new logo—created in-house—is distinctly different, just an upward-pointing arrow emerging from the letter N. It’s a somewhat disjointed design that somehow looks unfinished. The choice of blue as a brand color is also curious, unless management’s intent was to visually signal a left-leaning organization. (The Versant logo does use a gray-blue in its logo, but it is tonally very different.)
From a Creative Bloq article on the design: “The blue upward arrow between the fused letters is intended to reflect the ‘square motion theory ‘ of the network’s on-air design language, which uses the arrow as a repeating symbol and to form the box holding the CNBC logo. The arrow’s also intended to reflect the brand’s expertise in financial news, representing stock prices climbing.”
The new design may not be a permanent one: according to an SEC filing, CNBC can keep its name for the next five years under a trademark license agreement. When that period ends, it may be required to drop the NBC name, like MSNBC—now MS NOW—was forced to do.
