CNN+ to Shut Down After 32 Days

Urian B., Tech Times 21 April 2022, 05:04 pm

After an attempt at making its very own streaming service, CNN+ will shut down after just 32 days. The app is expected to cease operations on April 30 as per Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of CNN+.

CNN+ Will Shut Just Three Weeks Since It Launched

CNN+ will be shutting down after just three weeks since the streaming service just launched. The news was announced by Variety, with other reports from publications like The New York Times supporting the news of the streaming service closing.

A recent report by CNBC announced that the streaming service was only pulling 10,000 daily users. The service costs $6 a month to gain access to interactive news-driven programming on-demand and with a live exclusive.

New President of CNN Decided CNN+ Should Close Down

Chris Licht, the new president of CNN, was appointed after the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery as of recent, according to PRNewsWire. The newly appointed president was the one who recommended that CNN+ should close down.

CNN+'s executive vice president, Andrew Morse, is expected to leave the company after the transition period of the new merger. As per the report, hundreds of job cuts are expected to happen as a result of the transition.

CNN+ Programming to Potentially Head Over to HBO Max

According to the story by Engadget, this could mean that CNN+ programming could head over to HBO Max for a change. David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, wants to combine the company's content into just one streaming service.

This move to potentially bring CNN+ to a single platform is on track with the HBO Max and Discovery+ to merge. Despite this, CNN initially had high hopes for the potential project, CNN+.

CNN+ Failed to Gain a Significant Amount of Traction

The company had already put out hundreds of millions of dollars in the streaming service as an investment that would allow them to recruit talent from different networks. The talents included Fox News' Chris Wallace and NBC's Kasie Hunt in order to host the shows by CNN+.

After CNN+ was not able to gain a significant amount of traction, the executives at Warner Bros. Discovery decided to pull the plug on the streaming service. The article by Engadget says the crash and burn of CNN+ was harder than what happened to Quibi,

What Happened to Quibi's $2 Billion Streaming Service?

Quibi initially launched in April 2020 as a short-form streaming service, and just shortly after, it shut down in December. The difference between the two is that Warner Bros. Discovery only spent a few hundred thousand compared to Quibi.

Quibi invested around $2 billion in its streaming service, which lasted only a few months. According to CBSNews, the streaming service struggled to find customers within its six months of existence.

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Written by Urian B.