CNN faced a major setback.
Its new parent company decided to shut down its recently opened streaming venture. The closure of CNN+ will result in an over $100 million loss for the liberal media network.
CNN Closed Landmark Service in One Month
Even after investing big money into hiring top talent and marketing its subscription service, CNN+ failed to win a significant amount of subscriptions.
This step was reportedly taken by the new leadership, which did not want to pursue the subscription platform whatsoever.
The service was started under the nose of CNN’s previous owner WarnerMedia. However, it launched just some days prior to the Discovery acquisition of the company.
This marks one of the biggest failures in the recent history of media networks. Prior to this, Quibi, an entertainment-centric media streaming service, was shut down in 2020 after investing over $1.5 billion in the venture.
Netflix is projected to LOSE 2 million subscribers & CNN+ can't even reach 200,000.
The correlation between companies going woke & then broke is a new law of physics at this point.
— Lauren Boebert (@laurenboebert) April 20, 2022
CNN+ aimed to air exclusive programs hosted by its famous journalists for a meager fee of $5.99 per month. However, the viewers still showed no interest in the service.
Employees of the same program were astonished once they learned about the termination of the program.
Seasonal correspondent of CNN Sara Sidner, who specifically moved to New York for hosting on the newly released platform, called it a “mind-blowing” development.
CNN’s Controversial Ride Continuous
For this mega-project, CNN hired almost 700 people; many of them even left their previous jobs to have the brand name CNN on their resumes.
However, it still remains unclear how many people will be laid off by the network.
During most of the recent time, CNN remained a profitable entity, but the recent decline in its ratings gave the channel’s administration a massive shock.
It is now believed that CNN’s anti-conservative stance, along with its continuous ignorance of fact-based journalism, is costing them.
If you think you're having a bad day, imagine being Chris Wallace who left Fox to be the star of CNN+ and CNN+ immediately failed. 🤣🤣🤣
— Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) April 21, 2022
Before this, CNN jumped into the controversy when it fired one of the most popular hosts, Chris Cuomo, as he helped his brother Andrew Cuomo with insight information into a molestation controversy.
Just a couple of months later, the president of CNN Worldwide, Jeff Zucker, was also found indulging in controversy for having an affair with one of the other executives.
Similarly, the company had to be taken over by the new parent company.
This series of events made the launch of CNN+ controversial. Though some elements are still skeptical the venture is closed before its efficacy could be measured.
For instance, a veteran media executive Chris Balfe indicated the shutdown has nothing to do with the success or failure of the program.
However, former president of CNN USA, Jon Klein, asserted the decision of the new boss of the channel is in line with the recent decline in Netflix shares, which indicates streaming services have a tough ride in the business environment these days.
