CNN has unveiled a new pricing plan for its upcoming streaming service CNN+, which is expected to launch later this month, as the network tries to turn the page on leadership tumult and scandals.
CNN+ will launch at a base price of $5.99 per month, or $59.99 for an annual subscription, but subscribers who sign up in the first four weeks will get half off for life, in what CNN is calling the ‘deal of a lifetime.’
After the promotion ends, the CNN+ monthly base price will be the same as top rival Fox News’ established streaming service, Fox Nation.
CNN, a division of AT&T’s WarnerMedia, has invested a reported $120 million in CNN+ and recruited top talent, including Fox News veteran Chris Wallace, actress Eva Longoria, and Alison Roman, an Instagram personality and author of a popular cooking newsletter.
Ahead of WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery, expected to close this spring, CNN hopes to move on from drama after the bombshell ousters of host Chris Cuomo and boss Jeff Zucker, who resigned after failing to disclose a romance with a colleague.
CNN hopes to move on from drama after the bombshell ousters of host Chris Cuomo (above) and network boss Jeff Zucker
CNN+ will launch at a base price of $5.99 per month, or $59.99 for an annual subscription, but subscribers who sign up in the first four weeks will get half off for life
Replacing Zucker is veteran television executive Chris Licht, who has hinted that he will scrap the network’s opinion-heavy content and return to the station’s roots as a hard-hitting news source.
The change in leadership, merger with Discovery, and launch of CNN+ could together mark the start of a new era for the network, which first went live in 1980.
CNN says that its new streaming service will feature live daily news programming, original series, true crime shows and food and travel docuseries.
‘Nothing like CNN+ exists. There is no news and non-fiction streaming subscription offering available today, and only CNN can create and deliver a global news product with this kind of value to consumers,’ claimed CNN+ boss Andrew Morse in a statement on Wednesday.
‘We’re thrilled to offer CNN+’s world class journalism, premium storytelling and Interview Club platform at this attractive price,’ he said of the new pricing scheme.
CNN says it will have a single integrated app that will allow access to both CNN+ and live streaming through a traditional cable provider, ‘with easy navigation between the two.’
Meanwhile, Licht will take over as CNN global chairman when Discovery completes its $43 billion acquisition of WarnerMedia sometime this spring.
Chris Licht’s directive as incoming CNN president is to ensure that it ‘remains the global leader in NEWS,’ he wrote in a memo to staff on Monday
Earlier this month, Jeff Zucker resigned under pressure for violating corporate policy by not disclosing the nature of his consensual romance with second-in-command Allison Gollust, his friend and colleague of over 20 years
In his first memo to staff on Monday, Licht, 50, said his one directive as incoming boss is to ensure that it ‘remains the global leader in news as part of Warner Bros. Discovery,’ emphasizing the word ‘news’ in capital letters.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav tapped Licht for the new role, which he will officially assume in May.
Licht’s emphasis on ‘news’ in his first message to staff was a telling message that suggested the network could shift its focus under the new ownership.
Liberty Media CEO John Malone, Discovery’s largest shareholder, has publicly denounced CNN’s current reputation for producing heavy opinion-based content.
Licht wrote in his memo: ‘I look forward to getting to know all of you and hearing your candid thoughts and feedback. Our viewers demand the truth from us, and I want to learn the truth from you. Together, we will double-down on what’s working well and quickly eliminate what’s not.’
‘I know you have a lot of questions. Perhaps the biggest one is how will CNN change? The honest answer is that I don’t know yet. David Zaslav has given me one simple directive: To ensure that CNN remains the global leader in NEWS as part of Warner Bros. Discovery,’ he added.
Both Zaslav and Licht have talked about ‘doubling down on journalism’ and Zaslav has said that CNN’s credibility should be prioritized over ratings or profits, sources close to the two told CNN Business.
Licht (left) has been the showrunner and executive producer of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert since 2016. He was above with Stephen Colbert at the 2018 Winter Television Critics Association Press Tour in Pasadena, California
Discovery CEO David Zaslav (above) tapped Licht for the role, which he will officially take in May, and gave him the directive, which hints that the network may return to its roots as a hard-hitting news source free from bias
Liberty Media CEO John Malone, Discovery’s largest shareholder, has publicly denounced CNN’s reputation for producing opinion-heavy content
Earlier this month, Zucker resigned under pressure for violating corporate policy by not disclosing the nature of his consensual romance with second-in-command Allison Gollust, his friend and colleague of over 20 years.
Gollust subsequently left the network following a third-party investigation into ‘issues associated with Chris Cuomo and former Governor Andrew Cuomo,’ WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar said in a statement.
CNN founder Ted Turner’s biographer Porter Bibb recently said that Turner and Malone ‘adamantly’ opposed ‘what Zucker did with CNN, turning it into an opinion network, to compete with Fox and losing the concept of hard news 24/7.’
Bibb, who penned It Ain’t as Easy as It Looks, told The Ankler that Turner and competitor-turned-friend Malone agreed on their disappointment in the current state of the network – and the direction it needs to be taken in ahead of the Discovery merger with CNN parent WarnerMedia in April.
‘John Malone is not only speaking his own opinion of what CNN should be doing as an all-news network, but he speaks for Ted,’ Bibb said.
Zaslav, who is expected to run the company after Discovery acquires WarnerMedia, said that Licht is ‘a highly principled individual who is trusted, hard-working and makes every organization stronger, more innovative and more cohesive.’
Licht has been the showrunner and executive producer of The Late Show With Stephen Colbert since 2016.
‘Colbert credits him with saving his show and elevating it to the most-watched in late night,’ Bill Carter, a CNN media analyst who wrote multiple books about late-night TV, told CNN Business.
While Licht filled more of a management role at The Late Show, geared towards improving its backstage culture, Carter said that he is ‘a producer first, not an executive, key to making CNN work.’
He earned fame in the broadcasting world as the founding executive producer of Morning Joe, which he and host Joe Scarborough created and launched together in 2007.
