CNN Gears Up For Streaming Push

CNN’s plans for a new streaming service are coming into focus as the cable network’s parent company prepares to merge with Discovery Inc., reports The Wall Street Journal.

The service, known internally by the working title CNN+, is slated to feature new shows from the network’s major anchors, including Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon, according to people familiar with the matter. Those shows would be separate from the programs hosted by Cooper and Lemon on CNN’s TV channel, some of the people said.

The network’s effort coincides with recent moves by cable and broadcast competitors to bulk up streaming offerings as viewers shift away from traditional television.

CNN has struck new deals over the past year with many of its anchors that encompass their work for CNN+, the people said. Those deals locked in pay increases for anchors but they don’t include bonuses tied to the streaming platform’s eventual subscriber numbers, the people said. Across the TV news industry, anchors and show producers are sometimes awarded bonuses for drawing more viewers than rival shows in the same time slot.

CNN President Jeff Zucker said in a meeting with staffers last week that AT&T Inc.’s deal to spin off CNN parent WarnerMedia and merge that business with Discovery haven’t affected plans for CNN+, which he said would launch within the next year.

CNN is trying to catch up to the efforts of its major rivals in streaming. In 2018, Fox News launched Fox Nation, a news and opinion streaming service, and NBCUniversal’s Peacock, which includes news programming, made its debut last year.

Cable news ratings are down across the board from their peak around last year’s presidential election. CNN, which had soared to first place in key categories, has fallen to third place among total prime-time viewers so far in the second quarter, and second place among viewers in the 25-to-54-year-old demographic coveted by advertisers, according to Nielsen. Fox News is now No. 1 in both categories.

Cable news channels that are starting streaming services are seeking to do so without alienating their TV distributors, which pay big money for the rights to transmit their shows. Some networks, like CNN, are attempting that balancing act by creating new shows that don’t duplicate their traditional TV lineups. Others are taking a hybrid approach. Fox News said last week that it would make its prime-time shows available to Fox Nation subscribers, but only after those episodes air live. Fox Nation also includes original programs from hosts including Tucker Carlson.