CNN+ is a good name for a streaming service that very much needs to add viewers.
Citing sources privy to CNN’s internal data, CNBC reports the cable news network’s 2-week-old streaming service is off to a slow start, with fewer than 10,000 people per day using the $5.99 per month platform.
It’s unclear how many subscribers the service has attracted as that’s not public data. It’s also worth noting the service only became available on Roku Monday and has not yet launched for Android.
CNN told the Daily News that despite the seemingly sluggish numbers, “We are happy with where we’re at after two weeks of the service being available to subscribers.”
Ratings for the nearly 42-year-old cable outlet hit a record high in 2020 with 2021 being its second most-watched year, despite a significant drop in viewership. The Cable News Network averaged 773,000 total viewers per day last year.
CNN finished 2021 with a tumultuous parting of ways with prime-time host Chris Cuomo. It began 2022 with its president Jeff Zucker resigning amid the revelation that he was involved in a romantic relationship with a top female exec at the company. She, too, departed soon after.
CNBC reports that CNN+ could well wind up being bundled in a package with brands including HBO Max and Discovery+, which came under the same umbrella when Discovery and WarnerMedia merged to become Warner Bros. Discovery in May 2021.
CNN+ added veteran reporter Chris Wallace to its roster in December after he determined the situation at Fox News — his employer of 18 years — had become “unsustainable.”
That network also launched a streaming service that in 2018 began offering alternative programming to Fox News. That has included a special featuring teen gunman Kyle Rittenhouse, who was acquitted after killing two unarmed Black Lives Matter protesters in Wisconsin in 2020, and Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s infamous “Patriot Purge” series, which stirred up conspiracy theories sympathetic to right-wing fanatics tied to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
Wallace’s CNN+ weekday program, “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” debuted on March 29.
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