God? I know you’re out there but sometimes I just don’t understand your ways. Why do bad things happen to bad obnoxious people? Oh wait. That actually makes perfect sense to me and kinda’ makes me feel good. Never mind, God.
Ok. Follow up question, God. When bad things happen to bad people and I giggle about it, is that bad?
CNN Plus, the news network’s dedicated streaming service, is shutting down before even turning a month old. Chris Licht, the new CEO of CNN, delivered the news to his new team at an all-hands meeting on Thursday, and the service will shut down entirely on April 30th.
The network seemed to be doomed from the very beginning. The early subscriber numbers were bleak: Axios reported that about 150,000 people had signed up for the $5.99-a-month service as of this week, while CNBC reported that fewer than 10,000 people were using it on a daily basis. The service launched in the middle of huge turnover at the company, both with Licht’s appointment and with the newly combined Warner Bros. Discovery corporate structure being finalized.
Executives were reportedly frustrated that CNN Plus launched at all, especially as Warner Bros. Discovery shifts its strategy toward building one massive combined streaming service that includes both HBO Max and Discovery Plus. In that world, CNN Plus likely makes more sense as a feature than a standalone service.
A lot of streaming services have come and gone quickly in recent years, but you’d be hard-pressed to find one with a shorter shelf life than CNN Plus. Verizon’s Go90 lasted a comparatively impressive three years, and even Quibi lasted a bit more than six months.
Chris Wallace left the highest rated cable channel Fox News to join CNN+. Shows how smart he is, huh?
OK. I’m still giggling. I can’t stop. Is that bad?
April 21, 2022 at 2:37 pm
I thought Disney owned HBO…ah so its half and half. So if you pay for Time Warner’s streaming Disney gets some money from you since they own half of HBO. Time to only use free streaming services and turn adblock on.
April 22, 2022 at 7:45 am
This story is sort of a nothingburger. Yeah, sure, it cost CNN a bunch of money, and it will not look good on some people’s resumes, but this is not going to change the landscape of news as consumed by the American people. A tiny change that would have made almost no difference at all has failed to happen, leaving us with no change … which is kind of the opposite of news, really.