By: Al Tompkins, August 25, 2021, Poynter
CNN is launching CNN+, a subscription streaming service for news that it says “will exist side by side with CNN’s existing television networks and will feature eight to twelve hours of live programming a day.”
CNN says the project launches in the first quarter of 2022 and, in addition to journalists, the network will hire hundreds of specialists in production, engineering, technology, marketing and analytics.
The CNN+ effort follows others — including NBC and Fox — but none of them is even close in scope to CNN’s. Cord-cutting has cost cable networks access to millions of potential viewers as they are replaced by services like Netflix that put the user in control of content.
CNN is handcuffed by agreements with cable companies so it cannot just stream its current offerings to people who do not have cable. Instead, it had to create a totally new product. According to CNN, people who have cable or satellite service will also get expanded news coverage through CNN+. All of these subscription services have to take care not to undercut the legacy over-the-air or cable operations that are their foundations.
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