An image of CNN Plus, the paid streaming service that’s being shut down, across a variety of devices.
CNN
- At the end of March, CNN launched a paid subscription streaming service: CNN+.
- Three weeks later, the decision has been made to shutter it, according to multiple reports.
- CNN Plus has less than 10,000 viewers at any given time, CNBC reported last week.
CNN’s new paid streaming service, CNN Plus, is shuttering after just a few weeks of life.
The news was first reported by Variety, which cited multiple anonymous sources. Warner Bros. Discovery, which acquired CNN along with other former WarnerMedia assets in a $43 billion merger that closed April 8, confirmed the move with a statement from Chris Licht, chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide.
The service will stop streaming April 30, the company said.
“As we become Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN will be strongest as part of WBD’s streaming strategy which envisions news as an important part of a compelling broader offering along with sports, entertainment, and nonfiction content,” Licht said in the statement.
“We have therefore made the decision to cease operations of CNN+ and focus our investment on CNN’s core news-gathering operations and in further building CNN Digital. This is not a decision about quality; we appreciate all of the work, ambition and creativity that went into building CNN+, an organization with terrific talent and compelling programming. But our customers and CNN will be best served with a simpler streaming choice.”
Licht spoke at a CNN employee town in New York on Tuesday where he told CNN+ staffers, “You built a beautiful house but we need an apartment,” according to a company insider.
CNN Plus originally launched on March 29: For $5.99 each month, the service offers access to a library of new and old shows starring well-known faces from the cable news channel.
That includes every season of Anthony Bourdain’s “Parts Unknown,” which concluded with Bourdain’s death in 2018, as well as new shows made specifically for the new service, like “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?” The library is a mix of news shows hosted by CNN personalities like Anderson Cooper and Christiane Amanpour, and culture shows hosted by celebrities like W. Kamau Bell and Stanley Tucci.
Instead, those shows will appear on either CNN or some of its parent company’s other streaming services, the memo from Licht said. Current subscribers will reportedly get “prorated refunds” on their subscription fees, according to The New York Times.
The launch of CNN Plus was complicated by the just-completed merger of Warner Bros. with Discovery, and the shakeup in leadership at CNN following the sudden departure of former leader Jeff Zucker.
Incoming Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is said to have disliked the decision to launch CNN Plus just weeks before the completion of the merger, according to Variety.
A Warner Bros. Discovery representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
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