CNN Plus shutting down

"This is not a decision about quality," new CNN CEO Chris Licht told staff, adding that the brand's programming will become part of a "broader" streaming ...

We have very exciting opportunities ahead in the streaming space and CNN, one of the world’s premier reputational assets, will play an important role there.” The subscription streaming service marked a major bet by WarnerMedia on streaming news, although it took a vastly different approach than many of its competitors. Some shows are expected to find their way to HBO Max, which will become the centerpiece of the company’s streaming efforts. Most CNN+ employees, meanwhile, will be out of a job. But our customers and CNN will be best served with a simpler streaming choice.” While CNN+ will be shutting down, CNN programming is expected to become an important piece of WB Discovery’s overall streaming lineup.

CNN's new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, decided to pull the plug on the streaming service after a slow first month.

Hunt, in an interview with The Post last month, had said she was excited to get Licht’s advice on her CNN Plus show. In the months leading up to the merger, Discovery executives had hoped that WarnerMedia leadership would delay the CNN Plus launch, but company brass, led by chief executive Jason Kilar, decided to move forward with it. He had visited with employees in the network’s New York City office on Tuesday, which an employee said made Thursday’s announcement particularly hard. Besides Wallace, CNN Plus was building new shows around several other talents hired away from prominent news organizations, including Kasie Hunt of MSNBC and Audie Cornish of NPR, though the service did not offer the network’s traditional television shows to subscribers. But, the person said that Licht “took responsibility” for the decision in the town hall meeting and displayed strong leadership. On Thursday, new CNN chief executive Chris Licht stunned employees with the announcement it would shutter next week.

In a remarkable turnabout for one of the world's premier television news outlets, Warner Bros. Discovery has decided to shut down CNN+, the ballyhooed streaming ...

In February, addressing a group of anchors and executives stunned by Mr. Zucker’s departure, Mr. Kilar said that the streaming service was integral to the future of CNN. And in March, as the merger with Discovery loomed, CNN held a launch party for the new service at Peak, a sleek restaurant and bar at 30 Hudson Yards not far from the network’s New York offices. (To avoid running afoul of CNN’s agreements with cable carriers, CNN+ did include the live programming that was featured on its cable network.) Still, two people inside CNN said the service had about 150,000 paying subscribers and was on pace to hit the network’s first-year goals. CNN+ made its debut just days before the merger was completed last month, to the frustration of some Discovery executives. Warner Bros. Discovery has about $55 billion in debt, which executives are now under pressure to repay. “It allows us to refocus resources on the core products that drive our singular focus: further enhancing CNN’s journalism and its reputation as a global news leader.” “Then the new owner came in and said, ‘What a beautiful house! “And that doesn’t take anything away from this beautiful house you built. In February, as CNN was preparing to start the streaming service, the network was torn by the departure of Mr. Zucker, its long-serving president and the most prominent proponent of the service at the network. But I need an apartment,’” Mr. Licht said, according to the recording. Mr. Licht and JB Perrette, the head of global streaming at Warner Bros. Discovery, convened several meetings over the past several weeks to figure out what to do with the service. The new corporate owners of CNN are moving to end the new streaming service after a splashy debut.

CNN+, the streaming service that was hyped as one of the most significant developments in the history of CNN, will shut down on April 30, just one month ...

Perrette and incoming CNN CEO Chris Licht notified staffers of the decision in a meeting on Thursday afternoon. Executives had touted the application as the most significant launch since Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980. That's OK. That's all part of change." The prior management team's vision for CNN+ runs counter to Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav's plan to house all of the company's brands under one streaming service. Hundreds of CNN+ staffers may lose their jobs. Other programming will shift to CNN's main television network.

If there was any doubt that the streaming wars are going to be a brutal conflict, the recently merged super-corp. Warner Bros.

So the people who will lose their jobs get an assurance that this isn’t their fault, and everyone else will probably get to keep their show going somewhere else. As for the famous news people who had shows on CNN+, Variety says that a lot of them had deals that were not explicitly contingent on working with CNN+, so their projects could live on elsewhere. AT&T has since spun WarnerMedia and CNN into a separate company along with Discovery, which has the Discovery+ streaming service that covers similar non-fiction territory as CNN+. Warner Bros. Discovery announced in March that HBO Max and Discovery Plus would be combined at some point, which is a perfectly sane idea, but it left CNN+ kind of floundering out in the void.

Incoming CNN chief executive says service, which launched to fanfare with star names on board, to shut down at end of April.

There had been skepticism that a paid news streaming service would attract interest from consumers, who already have available a slew of online TV. CNN+ launched when its parent was still part of AT&T. It combined with Discovery earlier this month in a new company, Warner Bros Discovery, under the Discovery chief executive, David Zaslav, who had his own vision for CNN and its Warner siblings. In a Thursday memo, the incoming CNN chief executive, Chris Licht, said the service would shut down at the end of April.