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CNN+: An Autopsy
No Mercy No Malice No More
Tragedies don’t need to be long. One of the saddest stories ever written is just six words: “For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn.” CNN’s stillborn streaming service, CNN+, is another brief tragedy. For sale. Scott Galloway tapes. Never aired.
Cable television is a business in secular decline. To combat cord cutting, legacy media companies like CNN have tried pivoting to streaming. Work on CNN+ began in the summer of 2020. CNN is owned by WarnerMedia which at the time was owned by AT&T. With full-throated support from executives at AT&T and CNN, the service was given a $1 billion budget and a 15–18 million subscriber target after four years of operation.
In May 2021, AT&T announced the spin-off of WarnerMedia, including CNN, to Discovery for $43 billion. Strategically, Discovery was looking to beef up in streaming to better compete against Disney and Netflix by combining WarnerMedia’s HBO Max with its own Discovery+. Based on past experience, Discovery executives had doubts about the commercial feasibility of CNN+, preferring a consolidated streaming effort versus splitting their forces. However, communication between the two companies were limited by…
