At the end of March, Stacey blogged about the problems plaguing CNN+ right after its launch. Employees already expected layoffs while it offered 50% off its service for life.
Well, CNN+’s uphill battle took a hit from an avalanche.
CNN wanted “to invest around $1 billion” in CNN+ over four years. It already put in $300 million.
CNN+ has fewer than 10,000 viewers a day. TEN THOUSAND. CNN bosses thought CNN+ would have two million subscribers after its first year. From CNBC:
But there is broad skepticism whether there’s enough demand to sustain a stand-alone news streaming service, with entertainment-first options dominating the landscape. Disney+, for instance, posted more than 10 million subscribers on its first day.
CNN hasn’t released an exact number of CNN+ subscribers. Disney’s ESPN+, which offers sports news programming in addition to live event broadcasts, recently reported 21.3 million subscribers. NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which features news programming, reported 24.5 million monthly active accounts in the U.S., more than 9 million of which were paid members. (ESPN+ charges $6.99 a month and Peacock offers premium tiers starting at $4.99 a month.)
The network hasn’t released the numbers. People within CNN told CNBC the viewership numbers.
I have no idea where they got that number because CNN averages 773,000 a day. So the 10,000 number isn’t that surprising.
The numbers mean CNN will likely cut “[H]hundreds of millions of dollars” from the original investment.
CNN+ came out two weeks ago. The new leadership team “has yet to decide the ultimate fate of CNN+” New CEO Chris Licht begins his job on May 1.
WarnerMedia and Discovery recently came together to form Warner Bros. Discovery. That CEO, David Zaslav, said he needs “to see how the application performed before deciding on any next moves.”
It’s doubtful Warner Bros. Discovery will drop the streaming service. They could offer CNN+ with a package containing HBO Max and Discovery+.
It’s so weird. The Daily Wire has about 600,000 subscribers. Conservative news is growing while places like CNN fall apart.
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It would take a heart of stone not to laugh….
It would be great if CNN goes belly up in the near future, and example of woke causes broke.
It’s not a profit center – it’s a democrat party propaganda apparatus. It’ll never ‘go broke’, as long as Americans are paying taxes.
I don’t know how they couldn’t see this coming before they even launched this fiasco. “People don’t watch our free channel, so millions will definitely pay to watch us…” Duh.
Because it’s an intentional loss. A tax dodge gimmick.
I saw it reported that Chris Wallace is having daily meltdowns regarding CNN+. You just hate to see it for such a straight shooting newsman and company. ; )
Wallace appears to believe that he was hired to draw a huge chunk of FoxNews’ audience into his own little news channel. He’s reportedly having constant breakdowns and demanding to be awarded Chris Cuomo’s old time slot on CNN.
https://www.breitbart.com/the-media/2022/04/12/report-chris-wallace-having-daily-breakdowns-over-cnn-failure/
CNN+ was probably Zucker’s little test to see what kind of audience Wallace would bring and now we know. Wallace just won’t accept it. It’s over. This is a guy who left Fox saying that he had no problem tolerating other people’s opinions but couldn’t accept people who won’t accept the truth. His opinion on Jan 6 and the voting irregularities of the 2020 election is “the truth” that others won’t accept. What an arrogant, self-delusional ass. Good riddens.
CNN-bringing-in-only-10000-viewers-plans-to-cut-jobs-and-investments, but not the lying.
So, let’s say every single one of CNN’s average viewing lunatics (770k) paid $10 per month for this plus garbage and never cancelled. That’s a little short of $100M per year, or $400M over four years. And some mental patient approved a $1 BILLION investment over four years? There was no way in any sane scenario this would ever pay off.
Apparently some internal documents got leaked and the executives and ‘consultants’ in charge of this boondoggle were ‘projecting’ 2 million subscribers in the first year, and then 15-18 million after 4 years.
‘Delusional’ doesn’t even begin to cover it. They can’t get 2 million viewers FOR FREE, how the hell could they possibly believe that many people were going to PAY for it???
Because in their universe, Chris Wallace is the ‘big name” that would save them. A “franchise player”. Hah! Just another idiot son of a famous person. CNN is full of these entitled trust babies.
Ordinarily I don’t laugh at others misfortunes but yeah this is hilarious and I can’t help it.
There are many High School football stadiums that would seat every current CNN+ viewer with room to spare.
For those old enough to remember the beginnings of CNN it’s sad to see how far they have sunk, but they need to suffer the consequences of allowing themselves to be taken over by the left.
Yet another abject lesson in the results of the left’s long march through the institutions.
As an HBO Max subscriber, I am worried they add Discovery+ and CNN+ into a mandatory bundle with HBO Max. I would drop HBO Max if they did such an obnoxious thing.
This is especially hilarious when you consider how many children have set up websites, blogs, youtube channels, tik toks, etc that draw WAY more people than this. I mean seriously, it’s the internet, it isn’t that hard to draw 10k people.
It’s so weird. The Daily Wire has about 600,000 subscribers. Conservative news is growing while places like CNN fall apart.
No, it’s not really that weird. Places like CNN hung their future on being the “Never Trump” media channel. And it worked. For at least the four years of the Trump administration. But they never seemed to have made any plans as to what happens after Trump left office. And now that Trump is out of office what have they got. Little Tater Brian Stelter, Joy “I’m not a homophobe” Reid, Joe Scarborough & Mika. All flapping in the wind with nothing really relevant to say. As if they had anything relevant before. Not really a line-up that I would put my confidence in at this point. So CNN is sinking faster than the Titanic did after hitting the iceberg . . . the only thing left is to play Nearer to God to Thee and watch the it sink under the water forever . . .
chris wallace having a huge breakdown over this.
good.
I hope it hurts him in many many ways.
The significance of this reduction of staff and media footprint will be made manifest by the passage of time.
What do Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson have in common?
They both upset and obviously have the ability to undermine Chris Wallace and intimidate him in making his career decisions. Trump because of his ability to throw Wallace off his game (self esteem) and Carlson for taking the “stage” at Fox for continuously one-upping him. That an Carlson worked at his job much harder and in doing so made a larger impact on his show (ratings).
Why would anybody pay for CNN+ when they can get all its “news” for free from any of several blogs? Here’s one:
https://pdamerica.org/