OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
The new streaming service for CNN, known as CNN+, is expected to face massive cuts in investment as it is not reaching its subscription goals.
The service had hired former “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace, who was disgruntled with Fox News and moved to then network likely thinking it was stable.
But now a large number of funds that were set to go into the streaming service are going to be cut, Axios reported.
The news giant was initially planning to invest around $1 billion in the service over the next four years.
Hundreds of millions of dollars are expected to be cut from that original investment total.
To date, around $300 million has been spent on the subscription service, which includes a sizable marketing investment.
The new company’s leadership team still has yet to decide the ultimate fate of CNN+. CNN’s new boss, Chris Licht, will start May 1.
Last week Fox Business News’ Charles Gasparino reported that the new streaming service is a flop
“Breaking: @CNNplus employees bracing for layoffs possibly as soon as May amid projections of lackluster sales of new streaming channel; CNN employees say new streaming channel could be merged into larger @discoveryplus as early as May unless subscriptions pick up,” the Fox Business reporter said.
Breaking: @CNNplus employees bracing for layoffs possibly as soon as May amid projections of lackluster sales of new streaming channel; CNN employees say new streaming channel could be merged into larger @discoveryplus as early as May unless subscriptions pick up 130 @FoxBusiness
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) March 30, 2022
That was followed by a comment in a tweet by CNN’s rep Matt Dornic who said that the network is doing fine.
“For the record, we are VERY happy with the launch of CNN+ and are only bracing for a long run of success,” he said.
Gasparino replied to it by mocking him because CNN did not respond to his request for comment but their representative tweeted.
“The ‘well oiled’ @CNN PR Flack department won’t respond to my calls for comment but tweets out their response. Nice,” he said.
The “well oiled” @CNN PR Flack department won’t respond to my calls for comment but tweets out their response. Nice https://t.co/jvSLIv3lie
— Charles Gasparino (@CGasparino) March 30, 2022
The Daily Mail reported:
CNN+, a $5.99-per-month streaming service, represents the media outlet’s step into the world of streaming, similar to how Fox launched its own Fox Nation streaming service in 2018.
CNN says that its new streaming service will feature live daily news programming, original series, true crime shows, and food and travel docuseries.
The service made waves as it brought on big names to help it in the competitive world of streaming, grabbing Fox News’ Chris Wallace and MSNBC’s Kasie Hunt to host new shows on their platform.
Hunt told The Washington Post that the move to streaming was an obvious step in the right direction.
‘My parents don’t even pay for cable,’ Hunt said. ‘I just think that this way of watching television is the future, and that’s why it felt like kind of a no-brainer to do this.’
Fox News Primetime host Tucker Carlson reportedly had more to do with former colleague Chris Wallace’s departure from the network than previously known.
The former “Fox News Sunday” host was interviewed by The New York Times this week and took a number of swipes at his former place of employment.
Wallace left Fox News to join the new CNN streaming service CNN+ where he will not be covering politics but will be interviewing cultural figures.
“I’m fine with opinion: conservative opinion, liberal opinion,” he said of his decision to leave Fox News. “But when people start to question the truth — Who won the 2020 election? Was Jan. 6 an insurrection? — I found that unsustainable.”
He said that he spent “a lot of 2021 looking to see if there was a different place for me to do my job.”
The CNN host said that he was “so alarmed by Mr. Carlson’s documentary ‘Patriot Purge’ — which falsely suggested the Jan. 6 Capitol riot was a ‘false flag’ operation intended to demonize conservatives — that he complained directly to Fox News management.”
“Before, I found it was an environment in which I could do my job and feel good about my involvement at Fox,” he said. “And since November of 2020, that just became unsustainable, increasingly unsustainable as time went on.”
