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‘Uniquely shi**y situation’: CNN reports its own epic failure as it shuts down much-hyped streaming service

April 21, 2022 | | Print Article

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(Video Credit: Fox News)

CNN+, the brainchild of disgraced former CNN media executive Jeff Zucker, is officially shuttering itself just 30 days after launch, only garnering 150,000 subscribers when the goal was over 2 million in its disastrous debut.

Variety was the first to report on Warner Bros. Discovery shutting down the service. According to the network, CNN+ customers “will receive prorated refunds of subscription fees.”

The decision was made by new management following the merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery earlier this month according to CNN Business in a piece written by reporter Oliver Darcy and CNN host Brian Stelter. Discovery CEO David Zaslav reportedly plans to house all of the company’s brands under one streaming service. Some of CNN+’s programming may be resurrected via that service. Other programming will be hosted on CNN’s primary network.

“In a complex streaming market, consumers want simplicity and an all-in service which provides a better experience and more value than stand-alone offerings, and, for the company, a more sustainable business model to drive our future investments in great journalism and storytelling,” Discovery’s streaming boss J.B. Perrette said via a statement.

“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,” he remarked.

In a meeting held Thursday afternoon, Chris Licht, the incoming CEO of CNN told staffers about the decision and didn’t pull any punches in doing so, calling it a “uniquely shitty situation.”

“This decision is in line with WBD’s broader direct-to-consumer strategy,” Licht noted.

The nixing of CNN+ could cost hundreds of staffers their jobs. An internal memo sent out by Licht announced that “all CNN+ employees will continue to be paid and receive benefits for the next 90 days to explore opportunities at CNN, CNN Digital and elsewhere in the Warner Bros. Discovery family.”

He claimed that “this was an incredibly successful launch” but simply didn’t fit in with the merged company’s plans.

“It is not your fault that you had the rug pulled out from underneath you,” he told employees.

Many will find jobs elsewhere in the company. Those who don’t will receive six months of severance pay.

Perrette also vented some frustration over Zucker’s apparent lack of leadership at CNN during the meeting.

“Some of this was avoidable,” he claimed, but “prior leadership decided to just keep going” with the planned March launch of CNN+ even though the merger was looming in two weeks.

Alex MacCallum, who is the head of product and general manager of CNN+, will now be in charge of CNN Digital and work with Licht “to determine a leadership strategy going forward,” according to the press release.

CNN+ had been promoted by the network as the “most significant launch since Ted Turner founded CNN in 1980.” The company poured hundreds of millions of dollars into the streaming service and stole executives from other networks to work for CNN+. That included Kasie Hunt from NBC News and Chris Wallace from Fox News.

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Terresa Monroe-Hamilton
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34 thoughts on “‘Uniquely shi**y situation’: CNN reports its own epic failure as it shuts down much-hyped streaming service”

  3. CNN distorted and spun so much news in the last twenty years, they became a SNL schtick. Useless for factual information. And even Jack Dorsey has busted them recently for whipping up violence in the Ferguson riots so they’d have “footage”. Good riddance.

  4. Couldn’t understand the thinking of charging people to watch what they won’t watch for free. Guess I was right.. Bye Bye snowflakes and liars. FJB

  7. The same 150,000 people the subscribed to CNN+ are the same 150,000 that really did vote for Biden!

  9. cnn that you have to PAY EXTRA to get is like paying your sewer company to pump your crap BACK INTO your home!! Not very many even watch it for free so who in their right mind would think it’s a good idea to CHARGE for it??

  10. Maybe if CNN had not pushed the Russian collusion hoax for three years they would be considered a news organization instead of what they have become—the propaganda arm of the Democratic party.

    Then they followed that up with 2+years of Covid “the sky is falling”.
    Good riddance, and only themselves to blame.

    1. We stopped watching cnn 9 yrs ago .
      Absolute lying bs propaganda .
      Licking all the demorats ass s , killery,Obama ass, and the rest of the loser
      FKRS .

  12. “Cheering the failure of CNN+, however you feel about the idea behind it, is gross. Lots of people are losing their jobs . . . ”

    I wonder what “lots o= people” equates to in this pee brained person’s mind? Thousands would be good, tens of thousands would be better. When you sidle up with purveyors o= evil there’s a good chance you’re going to feel the e==ects o= evil yourself. I say “so sad-too bad”. Let them dig ditches, they will bring =ar more to the table than working =or the Communist New Network.

  13. Love Trump’s comments, so fitting. To have spent 100’s of $$$millions on this when their network station can’t garner 2 million viewers for any show, shows how stupid these people are.

  15. Anyone who takes a job with CNN is a loser to start with. Sorry, I can’t feel sorry for their employees. This is a monumental failure but still they don’t get it. It must be someone else’s fault.

  16. I’ll bet the thousands of workers who lost their jobs when the hair-sniffing zombie-in-chief shut down the pipelines, don’t give af how many lib scum lost their jobs over this.

    This whole thing is hilarious when you consider that a network no one wanted to watch before, decides to roll out a pay service that only 150K liberal morons were willing to shell out any money for.

    Probably the same D-Bags who donated money to BlackBehaviorMatters.

  17. Only 30 years ago, all eyes were on CNN and the 24hr coverage of Desert Storm. CNN owned the news cycle. They sure shyt the bed.

  19. This pathetic excuse for a journalist, and human being- got exactly what he earned and deserved. His hateful and partisan rants, negativity, Democrat talking points and lies- only appeal to a very small sector of viewing audience. If it were not for captured audiences like in airports, gyms, etc and parent corporations taking a loss–CNN and MSNBC would have collapsed years ago.

    1. This to me is great news. The America that I know does not take kindly to being lied to, being called stupid or finding out things they trusted are big fat lies. Hate to wish bad on other companies, but I wish the house of cards ( CNN) folds so bad the the parent company shuts them down completely and writes off the losses in tax. Maybe they will think twice about the liberal road map, hint pestaci or how you spell her name. Stop lying to the people.

    1. Right. I feel like I am in a 7th grade chat room.

      And even is every time I type an F the stupid video pops up covering the whole damn screen. Not sure why so I can’t stop it. You can’t pretend you are actually working if a video takes up the whole screen 😂

      1. Substitute an = when you need to use that letter.

        The only thing this stupid glitch has done is ensure that I will NEVER watch Tommy’s Garage – EVER!

  21. CNN is running out of ways to fail. Maybe they should replace Chris Wallace with Piers Morgan. /s

    Very enjoyable to watch them fall on thei faces again.

    No audience=No revenue

    The Woke go Broke.

  23. This is so funny, so karmic, that it’s almost sad. Given his age maybe Chris Wallace can be a door greeter at CNN?

  24. “CNN+, the brainchild of disgraced former CNN media executive Jeff Zucker, is officially shuttering itself just 30 days after launch…”

    I’m surprised it took that long.

      1. I hope he doesn’t get another gig. He is a lowli=e that doesn’t deserve pity. He is disloyal and ungrate=ul. He should sit in the basement and think about what a piece o= garbage he is.

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