Yesterday, we wrote about how Warner Bros. Discovery had cut off its marketing budget that would be used for bringing in new users. So the writing was on the wall, that CNN+ wasn’t going to be around for very long. However, we did not expect to hear this quickly that it would be shutting down.
According to multiple reports, CNN+ will cease operations on April 30. It launched on March 29.
It’s pretty amazing that CNN+ is already shutting down. Having been out for less than a month, even Quibi lasted longer and was essentially acquired by Roku. Though, both Quibi and CNN+ did invest millions into these projects, only for them to fail.
CNN+ programming will likely head to HBO MAX
It looks like post-merger, everything created under the Warner Bros. Discovery umbrella, will be available on HBO MAX. And that includes some of the original content from CNN+. This isn’t a surprise, since when the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger was announced last year, the two companies said that they wanted to merge Discovery+ and HBO MAX into a single app. And it really doesn’t make sense to have a totally separate app for CNN. When it could live in a hub on HBO MAX. Much like Warner Bros, DC and other things do on HBO MAX already.
WarnerMedia and CNN had big hopes for this project. After all, it is estimated to have spent $30 million on CNN+. Only for it to average around 10,000 viewers per day, and cease operations within a month. CNN had spent big money to lure Kasie Hunt over from NBC and Chris Wallace from Fox News to host shows on CNN+. It’s unclear what will happen with them right now, but they’ll likely do some shows on CNN or fill in for Wolf Blitzer and other news personalities.
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO, David Zaslov has said that he wants to bring CNN back to its journalistic roots. Which means we might be seeing a mass exodus over at CNN, as it looks to focus more on news and less on political talking heads and opinionated news. Which would be a change for cable news.
