CNN - CNN+ = 0

CNN+ is dead.

CNN's subscription streaming service went off the Internet two days ago after only a month online.  Its end marks the biggest failure in streaming to date and probably one of the biggest flops in all of television - broadcast, cable, streaming - of all time.

What went wrong?  It all boils down to bad timing, a bad business model, and a change of strategy after the merger of  WarnerMedia, which owned CNN, and Discovery, Inc. to become Warner Brothers-Discovery.  CNN+ gained about 150,000 subscribers in its short lifespan, a respectable start for a new streaming service but not enough, considering projected trends of growth, to make it profitable in the foreseeable future.  And as the pandemic recedes - "recedes," not "ends" - fewer people see a need to stream things all the time . . . which is why Netflix actually lost subscribers in the first quarter of 2022.  Also, the new management of the newly formed company is mostly made up of Discovery Inc. veterans who had nothing to do with CNN.  CNN+ wasn't their project, and they had no connection or attachment to it.  So CNN+'s days were numbered and the number was very small.

I sort of had a feeling that CNN+ was going to fail when I saw samples of its programming.  For example, as previously noted on this blog, foreign policy expert Fareed Zakaria interviewed celebrities on CNN+ - not unlike Dan Rather's celebrity interviews on AXS TV, so the novelty of a serious newsman talking to pop stars and the like wasn't exactly fresh.  (How far back do you want to go?  Edward R. Murrow pioneered the "hard-newsman-interviewing-celebs" concept with "Person To Person.")  One of Zakaria's subjects was Billy Joel, whose latest album is, last time I checked, 29 years old as of this writing.  (Zakaria showed an excerpt of his interview with Joel on his Sunday cable show, in which Joel talked about how he originally wrote "Movin' Out" to a melody that turned out to have been from Neil Sedaka's "Laughter In the Rain."  Yeah, I knew about that.  Hardly anything fascinatingly revealing.)   

Other CNN+ programs included a show about parenting with Anderson Cooper, a book-review show hosted by Jake Tapper, and a show hosted by Eva Longoria about discovering the wonders of Mexico.  (Only anti-Hispanic prejudice could explain why her show wasn't a companion on CNN to Stanley Tucci's very similar series about discovering the wonders of Italy.)  The biggest draws of exclusive talent for CNN+ were MSNBC refugee Kasie Hunt and Fox News outcast Chris Wallace hosting their own news programs.  I can just imagine CNN brass saying, "Now there's an idea that can't miss!"  (Well, George Lucas probably said the same thing about a Star Wars TV special for the 1978 Christmas season.)

Folks like Hunt and Wallace will probably get their own shows on CNN, with Wallace rumored to be under consideration for the 9 PM Eastern slot currently occupied by an expansion of Anderson Cooper's prime-time broadcast.  (AC has also been on in the afternoon covering the war in Ukraine, likely because CNN has decided that what we need is more of Anderson Cooper.)  Hopefully, they'll move Eva Longoria's series to the cable channel.  The enormous sums of money to promote and broadcast CNN+, however, prove that while you may have a solid product, it doesn't guarantee success for a new product that's merely a variation of the existing one.

Ask anyone who ever owned a Pinto-based Ford Mustang II.  

CNN Minus

CNN's streaming channel, CNN+, debuted last week, but it doesn't seem like much to write home about.  The programming is mostly documentaries that have been shown on CNN before, special programming  in which Fareed Zakaria interviews famous actors and musicians and Jake Tapper has a book club program, plus an interview show hosted by Chris Wallace.

Meh.

Of course, CNN charges a fee to stream CNN+, but right now  I would say that it's not worth it, though I might have different attitude later (especially if I can afford the service).  As it seems to appear, this "plus" streaming version of the Cable News Network is not cable, not much news, and, as a streaming service, it barely qualifies as a network. 

Oh, Chris!

At eleven o'clock yesterday morning, CNN's Brian Stelter announced that Chris Wallace was leaving Fox News effective immediately, with no plans other than to seek "new challenges."

Then, before Stelter's hour as host of CNN's "Reliable Sources" was up, he announced more breaking news: Chris Wallace was joining the Cable News Network's new streaming service, CNN+, which goes on the "air" in 2022.

Known for his combative questioning of public figures like his dad Mike was, Chris Wallace had long been to Fox News what Jim Cantore is to The Weather Channel; he was the only shred of legitimacy his channel could claim.  Now, with Wallace moving on to work or an offshoot of a real news network, it's becoming obvious that Fox News should rebrand itself Fox Talk.  Wallace had of late been asking tough questions of Republicans on his cable program and on his Sunday morning talk show on the Fox broadcast network (which still has no nightly newscast, thank God for that) and was increasingly showing more journalistic integrity than liberals had once given him credit for.  Now, like Shepard Smith before him, Wallace realizes Fox is no place for a real journalist.  He knows that if he wants to do hard news like his dad did, he can't stay at Fox.  He'd have to be an entertainer like his dad had once been.  But then, his dad had only been a game show host; what Tucker Carlson does probably shouldn't be called entertainment.  Unless he ever does it in an open-air stadium in Rome.

Good fro Chris Wallace.  He'll so just fine on CNN's new streaming service.  As for Fox News, well, sure, they still have Bret Baier.  But he won't be much of a fig leaf, just as no one at The But The Weather Channel could ever compensate for Jim Cantore if he ever leaves.