CNN+ To Shut Down One Month After Launch

[VySky]

Is Chris Wallace job hunting? Their bias is sending them deeper in the tank.

——-

That didn't take long.

Following a string of reports about underwhelming subscriber numbers, Discovery has reportedly decided to shut down CNN+, CNN's ill-fated streaming service, one month after its launch.

CNN+ To Shut Down One Month After Launch | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

 

[reinaert]

Bias?

No. It was a stupidly done reshifting of currently free content behind a paywall. Doomed to fail.

**** why I going to pay extra to watch Tucci in Italy or old Bourdain when I can either DVR it now or get all of it through my existing HBOMax subscription?

 

[Rexedgar]

Oh no!

What am I going to do with my” 50% off for life coupon?”

 

[reinaert]

Oh no!

What am I going to do with my” 50% off for life coupon?”

Come on now, everyone wants to pay monthly for Lisa Ling and whatever Behar is crabbing about.

Really, all this was is Discovery killing a four year dump of good money after bad.

 

[jmotivator]

Even CNN is dunking on CNN+




CNN has almost no ratings and their big idea to save the brand was to take a "news" service that nobody watches when it's free and charge people money for it...

I'm only surprised that the idiots who thought this was such a good idea actually admitted defeat so quickly.

 

[Rexedgar]

Even CNN is dunking on CNN+

View attachment 67386678


CNN has almost no ratings and their big idea to save the brand was to take a "news" service that nobody watches when it's free and charge people money for it...

I'm only surprised that the idiots who thought this was such a good idea actually admitted defeat so quickly.

The Hindenburg woke up a lot of people, too!

 

[jmotivator]

Bias?

No. It was a stupidly done reshifting of currently free content behind a paywall. Doomed to fail.

**** why I going to pay extra to watch Tucci in Italy or old Bourdain when I can either DVR it now or get all of it through my existing HBOMax subscription?

The primary failing is assuming that millions of people would pay for content that they already couldn't give away for free.

 

[reinaert]

The primary failing is assuming that millions of people would pay for content that they already couldn't give away for free.

Part of the ratings problem for CNN is that they have no good data for the CNN programming that's available on HBOMax.

I'll binge Tucci on Max the day it drops, but I'm not wasting soccer/basketball or defeating my wife at all card games time to watch it with ads.

 

[jmotivator]

The Hindenburg woke up a lot of people, too!

CNN+ was charging, what.. $6 a month? The initial investment was $100 million and a goal of dumping $1 billion into the project.

The only thing I can think to sort out the thinking behind this debacle is that CNN assumed that they would convert their online readership into paid customers of their streaming service? But their online readership already didn't translate into viewers on their basic cable channel, sooo...

 

[Rexedgar]

CNN+ was charging, what.. $6 a month? The initial investment was $100 million and a goal of dumping $1 billion into the project.

The only thing I can think to sort out the thinking behind this debacle is that CNN assumed that they would convert their online readership into paid customers of their streaming service? But their online readership already didn't translate into viewers on their basic cable channel, sooo...

To be fair, they saw Fox put a paywall up, FOX NATION. If they’re making money……..there is a reason that Fox is leading the ratings and I think it is due to the many choices open to non FOX people.

On a tangent, I don’t get the business model that says cut the cord and get $4.99ed and $8.99ed to death and by the time you have all the content you want, you are still spending a shit ton of money and “there is still nothing on the tv.”

NETFLIX is in some distress lately, but people forget that they almost singe-handedly put Blockbuster under. I read that BB had a chance to buy NETFLIX early and passed. I read that COKE had the same opportunity with PESPI early last century……

 

[Bullseye]

I'm not surprised given CNN's poor ratings; if people won't watch their trash when it's free why would they pay for it?

 

[reinaert]

To be fair, they saw Fox put a paywall up, FOX NATION. If they’re making money……..there is a reason that Fox is leading the ratings and I think it is due to the many choices open to non FOX people.

On a tangent, I don’t get the business model that says cut the cord and get $4.99ed and $8.99ed to death and by the time you have all the content you want, you are still spending a shit ton of money and “there is still nothing on the tv.”

NETFLIX is in some distress lately, but people forget that they almost singe-handedly put Blockbuster under. I read that BB had a chance to buy NETFLIX early and passed. I read that COKE had the same opportunity with PESPI early last century……

DiscoveryHBO is going to shift the market even further. Paramount+ is a bad portal, but it has enormous content. Obviously Disney+/Hulu/Espn+ is a massive, and very well organized curator. And Amazon now has control of the MGM/UA library and studios, making Netflix the small player (especially if Apple+ follows trends and buys Sony and/or Lionsgate).

The $4.99ing to death is likely to change.

 

[Rexedgar]

DiscoveryHBO is going to shift the market even further. Paramount+ is a bad portal, but it has enormous content. Obviously Disney+/Hulu/Espn+ is a massive, and very well organized curator. And Amazon now has control of the MGM/UA library and studios, making Netflix the small player (especially if Apple+ follows trends and buys Sony and/or Lionsgate).

The $4.99ing to death is likely to change.

What’s your prediction as to your last line?

 

[jmotivator]

 

[reinaert]

What’s your prediction as to your last line?

I wouldn't place a lot of emphasis on it, because I think it still depends on whether Apple+ buys a content library or stays lean and excellent (filling the niche abandoned by the most recent form of post-porn HBO). But if the trend continues, I suspect three or four very large curators plus a wifi bill. My oldest works for VZ and he says they're going all in on 5G+ internet as the Comcast/Cox/Spectrum killer. He thinks there's some legs to the idea that the Wireless providers will continue to make deals to offer 'free' access to content providers, the way VZ does with Disney's bundle. If that accelerates, then maybe the days of $xx.99 bills are numbered.

 

[jmotivator]

 

[Somerville]

It looks like the shut down of CNN+ was at the command of the new executive team following the merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery.

The decision was made by new management after CNN's former parent company, WarnerMedia, merged with Discovery to form Warner Bros. Discovery earlier this month.
The prior management team's vision for CNN+ runs counter to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's plan to house all of the company's brands under one streaming service.

Discovery's streaming boss, J.B. Perrette and incoming CNN CEO Chris Licht notified staffers of the decision in a meeting on Thursday afternoon. Licht bluntly told employees it was a "uniquely shitty situation."
Hundreds of CNN+ staffers may lose their jobs. Licht said in an internal memo that "all CNN+ employees will continue to be paid and receive benefits for the next 90 days to explore opportunities at CNN, CNN Digital and elsewhere in the Warner Bros. Discovery family."

Staffers who aren't absorbed elsewhere in the company will receive a minimum of six months of severance, he added.

Licht said in a town hall style meeting with staffers that "this was an incredibly successful launch" but simply incompatible with the newly merged company's plans.

The new company now has billions of dollars in debt, at least part of which is due to a failure to communicate between the boardrooms of WarnerMedia and Discovery

During the town hall, Perrette expressed some frustration with the "prior leadership" of CNN, which was led by Jeff Zucker until February, and WarnerMedia, which was led by Jason Kilar until early April.
"Some of this was avoidable," he said, but "prior leadership decided to just keep going" with the planned March launch of CNN+ despite the impending merger, he said.
The streaming service ended up launching just two weeks before the WarnerMedia-Discovery merger completed, much to the exasperation of Discovery leadership, which had a different strategy but could not legally communicate with CNN executives before the deal was official.

 

[Gateman_Wen]

Is Chris Wallace job hunting? Their bias is sending them deeper in the tank.

——-

That didn't take long.

Following a string of reports about underwhelming subscriber numbers, Discovery has reportedly decided to shut down CNN+, CNN's ill-fated streaming service, one month after its launch.

CNN+ To Shut Down One Month After Launch | ZeroHedge

ZeroHedge - On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero

www.zerohedge.com

It wasn't biased, it was poorly designed and only minimally functional.

 

[Gateman_Wen]

The primary failing is assuming that millions of people would pay for content that they already couldn't give away for free.

No. The primary failing is assuming that millions of people would pay for content that they already giving away for free.

 

[jmotivator]

No. The primary failing is assuming that millions of people would pay for content that they already giving away for free.

Except that their ratings are awful even when it's free. To recoup their $100m investment (let alone the $1b planned investment) they would need more paid subscribers than they had nightly viewers on basic cable.

 

[reinaert]

Except that their ratings are awful even when it's free. To recoup their $100m investment (let alone the $1b planned investment) they would need more paid subscribers than they had nightly viewers on basic cable.

Right, but a lot of the content on + wasn't prime time shows; it''s their library of more intriguing human interests items, or some of the bad pap, most of which was already streamable on Max. That's never going to show in the primetime ratings numbers.

Discovery was always going to kill this, and if the reporting is to believed, execs at Discovery and some at Warner were bullshit CNN went forward with it because CNN knew Discovery never wanted it launched

 

[Josie]

Well, I'm out of the loop. I've never heard of CNN+.

 

[Josie]

View attachment 67386705

I laughed out loud.

 

[HikerGuy83]

I'm not surprised given CNN's poor ratings; if people won't watch their trash when it's free why would they pay for it?

Because they are left wingers.

 

[NuffSaid]

CNN+ is as popular as TruthSocial