MSNBC is a small campaign contribution by Comcast/NBCUniversal. MSNBC doesn’t need to support itself.
You must be correct.
I found ad rates of ~$5 per 1,000 people for TV.
That makes an audience of 100,000 people worth $500. Cable averages 16 minutes of advertising per hour, so MSNBC is grossing ~$8000 per night on Madcow, $40k per week, $2,080,000 per year.
Maybe that seems like a lot, but what what is their overhead? Madcow’s salary alone is $6 million per year. My guess is that they are losing over $8 million per year on that show.