Politics
CNN To Launch New Streaming Service Three Years After ‘CNN+’ Disaster
CNN will be launching a new streaming product this coming fall, roughly three years after the company’s disaster streaming service, CNN+, was shut down after just one month in operation.
CNN CEO Mark Thompson made the announcement during a meeting with staff on Tuesday, according to a report from the New York Times. Some of the details remain unclear as of this report, including pricing and the exact release date.
Thompson told employees that the new project will be tied to the company’s recently unveiled subscription product, however, which grants paying customers unlimited access to articles posted on CNN’s news site.
The network is also hoping to avoid alienating traditional cable distributors by granting those customers free access to the new streaming service.
Alex MacCallum, CNN’s executive vice president of digital products and services, described the planned bundling of of the video service with CNN’s existing subscription product as a way to allow “audiences to get the most out of CNN in one seamless and simple way.”
Like many media outlets, CNN is scrambling to introduce additional streams of revenue to its traditional business model. In an interview this year, Thompson acknowledged that he company’s “future prospects will not be good,” if CNN fails to update the company’s platform “with real conviction and scale.”
Thompson, who previously led a revitalization of the New York Times’ digital offerings, has focused significant attention to CNN’s digital business since joining the company in 2023. Investments in the digital side of the business have been posted by a $70 million commitment from parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.
To that end, the company plans to add 200 digital-focused employees this year after previously laying off 200 employees focused on its traditional television operations back in January.
Then BBC Director General Mark Thompson speaks at the Monaco Media Forum on November 13, 2008
Photo: Eirikso
The new project is expected to look a-lot different than the company’s $300 million disaster streaming service, CNN+, which shut down after just one month. While CNN+ was loaded with well-known names in cable news, Thompson is reportedly eyeing a “more stripped-down” format resembling the network’s traditional cable experience, the New York Times reported.
Subscribers will also gain access to a network of original documentaries and CNN shows.
