CNN’s ill-fated streaming service will close on 30th April following management changes at Warner Bros Discovery.
There had been hostility to CNN+ from the ex-Discovery side of the merged business. With most of Discovery’s senior management team now filling the top roles at Warner Bros Discovery, they had the final say over the future of the service.
At this stage CNN says that programming that was available on CNN+ “may” appear on Warner Bros Discovery’s future merged streaming platform. Pre-merger, Discovery’s executives had pointed towards the merged business bringing all of its streaming services on to one platform.
CNN said the decision to shut down CNN+ just weeks after it launched “marked a stunning end to the streaming news service”. It added that executives had touted the application as the most significant launch since Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980.
CNN+ was due to expand internationally. And CNN had begun charging for access to its UK live stream. However, that strategy was undermined by allowing Samsung TV Plus and Rakuten to continue offer a free copy of CNN International on their streaming platforms.
Context
Aidan Smith, RXTV
The merger of Warner Bros and Discovery has combined a company that is a shareholder in GB News (Discovery) with the owner of CNN (Warner Bros). For American readers, that’s not far off like having a company that’s a shareholder in both Fox News and MSNBC.
News channels generally act as a mirror of the ethics and values of their owners, from Murdoch’s global news outlets to news services provided by Comcast and Disney-owned companies. Warner Bros Discovery’s long-term news strategy is still not clear.
From some of the managerial wrangling in previous days, it appears Discovery management was more critical of CNN+ and didn’t want to allow CNN more time to establish its fledgling brand. Many high-level positions at WarnerMedia look set to be closed as ex-Discovery bosses take over.
With a gap between CNN+ closing and Warner Bros Discovery bringing together HBO Max and Discovery+, it is as yet unclear how CNN+ content will survive in the meantime and where it might go.
In the meantime, media analysts will be watching Warner Bros Discovery closely to see how new managerial appointments will affect the future direction of CNN and the company’s overall news business.