Okay, thanks for this Adam. I guess I knew about the exclusivity part of
the cable deal, but was not thinking about it. That does explain why CNN+
is not mostly CNN news summaries on a loop. I access television through
YoutubeTV, mostly through my Fire at TV stick, so it feels just like
streaming anyway, so I forget that is accessing cable, not true streaming.


On Sun, 24 Apr 2022 at 12:21 PM Adam Bowie <[email protected]> wrote:

> The primary problem that CNN is facing is that what everyone would really
> want from a streaming CNN (if they want it at all) would be - well -
> regular CNN.
>
> But right now, they just can't deliver that - not without you first buying
> a cable bundle. The $1.01 (according to Variety back in 2020 -
> https://variety.com/vip/pay-tv-true-cost-free-1234810682/) that CNN gets
> per user per month is worth something of the order of $800m a year or
> thereabouts, and they can't afford to give that up. CNN's most recent
> *profits* are ~$700m! But obviously a significant number of people have cut
> the cord and don't have cable, and there's no current way that CNN can sell
> those households their regular service because of the exclusivity deals
> they've done with cable (and satellite) operators. Cable would simply stop
> paying the $1 a month if they weren't exclusive.
>
> The number of cable homes falls year on year, so those cable revenues fall
> commensurately. At some point, CNN will have to bite the bullet and give up
> those exclusivity deals. But in the meantime, CNN+ was at least
> theoretically, a workaround or hedge to allow people to get a sort-of-CNN
> without cable. Yes - at launch CNN+ was supposed to be for super-fans of
> the regular service (just as Fox News fans have Fox Nation - they too can't
> put their main offering on a streaming service), but in time they would
> surely have wanted to grow it out and offer a version of the service that
> didn't cost them that lucrative cable money.
>
> How CNN, Fox News, ESPN and others navigate this will be interesting. The
> networks and studios with non-news and sport can do it by slowly shifting
> shows to their streamers, and putting all the "good" stuff on streaming.
> Hence we see ABC shifting Dancing with the Stars to Disney+. CBS can stay
> full of NCIS spin-offs, while anything else goes on Paramount+ and so on.
>
> There's a good question about how news should work in a streaming world,
> but honestly I think a "lift and shift" from linear broadcast to streaming
> would be just fine for a lot of people. Add in the ability for me to watch
> a 20-30 minute regularly updated news bulletin on demand, and that's just
> fine. I bet a load of streaming only folk would happily leave something
> like CNN streaming live in the background on mute or low volume, just
> keeping an eye for "Breaking News" banners. But it's a business limitation
> they face right now.
>
>
> Adam
>
>
>
> On Sun, Apr 24, 2022 at 7:13 PM Tom Wolper <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> For the last couple of days I’ve been trying to think of what I would
>> want from a CNN subscription service and I can’t come up with anything. I’d
>> like on demand documentary explainers that go deep into topics but they are
>> available for free on YouTube.
>>
>> On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 6:59 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I don’t understand why anyone at CNN thought their viewers would buy
>>> different CNN content that was streamed.
>>>
>>> In college I used to have “CNN Headline News” on in the background
>>> constantly. As background noise, at the time nothing was better. When I
>>> lived in Central Asia, when I had access to cable, I turned on BBC World
>>> News. It was even better background noise. Yes, they were both repetitive
>>> but it was live journalism in living color when and where I wanted it.
>>>
>>> Whether the “flagship” network is overhauled or the streaming content is
>>> relaunched, if the focus isn’t on journalism, it is fundamentally flawed.
>>>
>>> On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 3:48 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Totally agree that CNN as is hardly inspires cutting edge journalism.
>>>>
>>>> What I am curious about Kevin (or anyone else) is how does streaming
>>>> news+opinion offer an advantage over the linear cable platform. Ideally a
>>>> basic newscast would repeat and be updated multiple times in the 24 hour
>>>> day on cable or streaming, so why do I need to be able to view a newscast
>>>> online from even 4 hours ago? There may be special reports and
>>>> documentaries from CNN cable that would be nice to archive and access as
>>>> desired online, but that seems like a supplement, not a replacement of the
>>>> cable presence.
>>>>
>>>> If I were a news first guy at CNN, I would be caring less about a
>>>> vanity streaming presence, and more about upgrading the journalism on the
>>>> mothership. Get that right, and then just simulcast it on streaming to
>>>> magnify it’s footprint.
>>>>
>>>> On Fri, 22 Apr 2022 at 3:40 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I didn’t subscribe to it, because the very concept of paying for what
>>>>> CNN does seems wrong on multiple levels, but I don’t think dropping CNN+
>>>>> after a month disrespects the newsroom; I think the content coming out of
>>>>> the newsroom disrespects the newsroom.
>>>>>
>>>>> It wouldn’t take much to make CNN a go-to source for news, but the
>>>>> network’s insane plan of elevating personalities and pundits over
>>>>> journalists and experts, reducing the network to armchair quarterbacks who
>>>>> bark over each other then pat each other on the back for doing it, 
>>>>> prevents
>>>>> that from ever happening.
>>>>>
>>>>> On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 3:33 PM PGage <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Based on the reporting of Dylan Byers at Puck, the answer is both A
>>>>>> and B (not sure they are that different). Zaslav, while respecting that 
>>>>>> he
>>>>>> had no say until he officially too over, has made it clear he is looking
>>>>>> for efficiency (he has promised $3B Of savings in cost synergies), and 
>>>>>> that
>>>>>> clearly always included combining all of the new assets in one streaming
>>>>>> service. There will be CNN content online, maybe a lot of it, but it will
>>>>>> be on whatever they eventually call the new thing, which likely will
>>>>>> eventually also fold in HBO.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The CNN people saw CNN+ primarily in terms of serving their news
>>>>>> mission and ambition (to be the news organization of choice on the
>>>>>> internet, supplanting the NYT). I think they were betting that if they
>>>>>> committed CNN financially and publicly enough before the new guys came 
>>>>>> in,
>>>>>> they would have no choice but to keep going. They lost that bet.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The newsroom is seeing this as a demoralizing and disrespectful
>>>>>> de-prioritizing of News within the new company. They may be correct, but 
>>>>>> I
>>>>>> think it is too soon to tell. CNN+ Always seemed a little self important
>>>>>> and deluded an idea, and I have never heard an explanation of how news,
>>>>>> whose main attribute is timeliness, translates well to the archived, 
>>>>>> mended
>>>>>> and on demand environment of streaming.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Whatever Chris Wallace wants to do, it arguably will be more
>>>>>> successful if somehow pushed to the consumer of John Oliver or Bill 
>>>>>> Maher,
>>>>>> than as the furtive lynchpin of an all news streamer.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Fri, 22 Apr 2022 at 2:44 PM Paul Murray <[email protected]>
>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I'm puzzled that no one at CNN seemed to consider, "since we're
>>>>>>> being acquired, maybe we should hold off launching this expensive 
>>>>>>> venture
>>>>>>> until we see what our new overlords think." Especially since their plans
>>>>>>> called for losing $1b in the first few years, and the new company was
>>>>>>> already going to be saddled with plenty of debt, courtesy of AT&T.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> I can only conclude that either a) they were high on their own
>>>>>>> supply and convinced that CNN+ was a work of absolute genius that 
>>>>>>> everyone
>>>>>>> would recognize or b) they knew the new guys would pull the plug, and 
>>>>>>> they
>>>>>>> were determined to plunge ahead regardless.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> From what I have read, Discovery was wary for legal reasons of
>>>>>>> issuing any directions to Warner pre-merger.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On Friday, April 22, 2022 at 4:18:47 PM UTC-4 Tom Wolper wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Journalists I follow on twitter say the consequences of a failure
>>>>>>>> this large are going to reverberate in CNN for years.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 12:20 AM Kevin M. <[email protected]>
>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> Remember this picture trending of a bunch of white guys in charge
>>>>>>>>> of CNN+? People, myself included, pointed out that in Atlanta, to not 
>>>>>>>>> have
>>>>>>>>> ANY other ethnic representation showed a profound disconnect from the
>>>>>>>>> potential online audience. I can’t prove that’s why it failed, but…
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> https://twitter.com/morsea/status/1508645771066982403?s=21&t=-7ealiXbkRNUZFSbMb2T6A
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 10:40 AM Tom Wolper <[email protected]>
>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> I wish I had $300 million I could throw away like that. I was
>>>>>>>>>> surprised to see that Chris Wallace’s show wasn’t about interviewing
>>>>>>>>>> newsmakers but interviewing people like William Shatner and Joan 
>>>>>>>>>> Collins.
>>>>>>>>>> Were they targeting nursing homes?
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 12:33 PM Kevin M. <[email protected]>
>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> All anybody wanted was access to a live stream for breaking
>>>>>>>>>>> news. CNN execs couldn’t figure that out.
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> On Thu, Apr 21, 2022 at 9:27 AM Joe Hass <[email protected]>
>>>>>>>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> Hey Quibi: you've got company!
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> https://www.wsj.com/articles/warner-bros-discovery-is-shutting-down-cnn-streaming-service-11650556680?st=6x8pi3k7qmjr1rr&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>> On Tue, Apr 19, 2022 at 3:28 PM 'Bob Jersey' via TVorNotTV <
>>>>>>>>>>>> [email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> At least till new bosses JB Perrette and Chris Licht get a
>>>>>>>>>>>>> chance to look over things.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://variety.com/2022/tv/news/cnn-plus-future-warner-bros-discovery-1235235816/
>>>>>>>>>>>>>  (link)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Licht begins at the company May 2nd, at which time he'll quit
>>>>>>>>>>>>> Twitter.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> https://twitter.com/ChrisLicht/status/1516071114073645060
>>>>>>>>>>>>>  (link)
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> B
>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>> --
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>>>>>>>>>>>>> .
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>>>>>>>>>>>> .
>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>>>> Kevin M. (RPCV)
>>>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>>>> .
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>>>>>>>>> To view this discussion on the web visit
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>>>>>>>>>> .
>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>>>> Kevin M. (RPCV)
>>>>>>>>>
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>>>>>>>>> .
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>>>>>>> .
>>>>>>>
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>>>>>> .
>>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Kevin M. (RPCV)
>>>>>
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>>>>> .
>>>>>
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