It is possible that when you were looking into news items recently, you came to CNN’s digital platform and ran into a problem. You try to open up an article and get a window explaining that you need to subscribe to read a basic news entry. This is a result of a new foray the outlet began in expanding its digital reach, and it has been a mystery how well things are going.
It was back in October when CNN All Access, the cable news channel’s third attempt at establishing a foothold in the evolving digital landscape, was rolled out. If this comes as a surprise, it is understandable; it appears this attempt has not exactly made an impact across the news landscape.
Most are familiar with the massive failure that was CNN+. That was a much-ballyhooed segue by the channel into the streaming marketplace and cratered in magnificent fashion. After a time spent signing new talent, hiring hundreds for production work, and promoting the debut heavily (they even offered NFTs of original broadcasts from the 1980s), the enterprise ran into issues.
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Current CNN CEO Mark Thompson attempted a second shot at the streaming market when he rolled out CNN content on the parent company’s streaming platform, HBO Max. The idea was to have dedicated CNN broadcasts and other original branded content in the library, and promote it by injecting clips and promos into other content being viewed. The hope was to have subscribers migrate over to CNN offerings and possibly spin off a subscriber option.
That, however, was curtailed this fall in anticipation of the entry of CNN All Access. It is hard to measure the impact that this has made, as not much has been heard after the announcement and push of the new service in October. Notably, we do not see many people at all talking about the service; there are no mentions showing up in social media feeds, and little discussion of it has been evident.
I had to seek out those remarks to get impressions from those who have subscribed, and there are tepid reactions. One common comment has been that you cannot get the primary CNN broadcasts with your subscription. This is for good reason.
CNN has a stipulation in its carriage contracts with cable providers that its television service content cannot be accessed apart from its cable broadcasts. This was the case with CNN+, and it applies to all networks. Look around your streaming options or television apps, and while you may see news offered from NBC, say, or CBS, those are wholly independent broadcasts, often with different anchors. NBC News NOW, for example, has an entire cast of news anchors apart from those seen on the network broadcasts.
Many have commented that it is a bit of a misnomer to call your service “All Access” when you are prevented from accessing the primary news channel offerings. Then there is another bit of misdirection from one of the original shows. Anderson Cooper has his own separate show on the new product called “The Whole Story.” This carries an impression, therefore, that on the primary CNN broadcasts, they are not providing all of the needed information (which many agree has been the case), and that you will need to subscribe in order to get the complete news delivered.
All of which points to this being yet another attempt at futility with the network. The first question is: Where is the demand? CNN has been enduring viewer erosion for years, and that has accelerated since the 2024 general election. Jake Tapper, as one example, saw his rating plunge following the release of his book this spring, “Original Sin.”
The network trails the news nets well back in third place, and frequently sees it being beaten in the ratings by The Food Network, and even the westerns rerun network, INSP. Shows on the primetime schedule frequently fail to reach 500,000 viewers (while #1 Fox sports millions for its lineup). There have been days when one Fox News show - “The Five” - draws more viewers in its hour than CNN’s collected audience for its shows from 4-11 pm.
This all leads to the obvious question: why would people be tempted to pay for a premium subscription when they are foregoing the primary product they can view for free? It was a question asked years ago, when CNN was investing hundreds of millions to roll out its misbegotten streaming service CNN+. The mistakes were obvious at the time, yet ignored.
Then-network CEO Jeff Zucker - who spearheaded that effort - departed a month before the rollout of that platform amid a sex scandal. At the same time, the parent company was completing a merger, and the new Warner Bros.- Discovery management had other plans, all while being prevented from engaging in the operations until the merger met government approval. One issue was that Discovery Channel executives had launched a number of dedicated channel streaming services in recent years, and those were met with middling success.
After its debut in late March of 2022, CNN+ was viewed as little more than a curiosity. People wondered what it might be, but beyond that, there was little to be found in the form of demand. Executives had predicted two million subscribers by the end of the year, but the first weeks drew around 150,000, and then leveled off rather than showing growth. And of those who subscribed, they were not motivated users. Measurements at the time showed that only a few thousand of those were daily viewers.
A billion dollars was the projected budget for CNN+, and hundreds of millions of dollars were poured into the product, yet after barely two weeks, the announcement was that they would pull the plug at the end of April. Then it was decided that even that was too long to endure, and CNN+ was put down like a rabid dog in less than one month of operating.
After Chris Licht’s tormented tenure as Jeff Zucker’s replacement, CNN brought in Mark Thompson, who came from the New York Times, an entity with a thriving digital footprint. But the issue is with how the projections for CNN streaming were always flawed. The comparisons were always made to the Times or Wall Street Journal subscription numbers, which were the result of their readers moving from print to digital. They gave their audiences what they were demanding.
CNN streaming is merely providing what CNN consumers are already consuming, that is, digital content in video or printed form. They are offering a different version of the same, but at a premium. The better comparison they needed to use was always Fox Nation, the streaming platform from Fox News. That product has taken time to build up to two million subscribers, and that is for the #1 cable news network. CNN has a fraction of the Fox audience, so demand for a premium product is severely truncated when your free product is not so desired.
But so it goes, and the foundering news network works to achieve a measure of success. Mark Thompson said in an interview, “These things don’t build overnight. The main thing the first year or two is to learn from the audience and optimize the product. Our task now is to put it out there and build an audience.”
He is facing a twofold problem. They have been unable to build their audience over the past few years, and as cable ratings continue to decline, they do not have the luxury of time for this third attempt at establishing a digital foundation to replace that dwindling income from the cable realm.
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