CNN+ Streaming Service to Shut Down After Less Than a Month

In a twist that will not shock the few people who actually knew what CNN+ was, Variety has reported that CNN’s premium streaming service will shut down on April 30th, just a month after it was launched.

CNN+ managed to capture 100,000 subscribers in its first week, something that is essentially a drop in the bucket compared to its streaming contemporaries. Subscription prices were advertised to be $5.99 per month or $59.99 per year, with a deal for those who bought a monthly subscription in the service’s first month getting a permanent discount og $2.99. Even so, that was not enough to draw a significant audience to the streamer that was launched less than two weeks before Discovery’s acquisition of WanerMedia was finalized.

With the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, it isn’t surprising that CNN+ was put on the chopping block. While platforms like HBO Max and Discovery+ will be merged into one, CNN+ simply doesn’t have the same weight behind it. The platform was host to all of CNN’s original series and films alongside a slate of daily and weekly shows hosted by Anderson Cooper, Audie Cornish, Chris Wallace, Alison Roman and Wolf Blitzer among others. CNBC reported there were only 10,000 users a day on the service, which is only 1.2% of the audience that CNN’s cable network draws. Simply looking at the talent working on content for both CNN and CNN+, it made no logical sense to keep the streaming service going with so little reward.