CNN has a new streaming service — but don’t call it CNN+.
The cable network just unveiled CNN All Access, a subscription product launching October 28 that is set to offer unlimited access to its live video feed and website, plus its video library.
CNN superfans, or news junkies who’ve cut the cord, can get the service for $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year. Those who sign up by January 5 can get their first year for 40% off, or $41.99.
While CNN employees have said they hope this new service can find an audience, one network veteran has doubts about how many people are willing to pay to watch CNN who don’t already have access.
“I don’t know how we attract people to this product who are not huge CNN fans,” this person said. They, and others reached for this story, spoke with Business Insider on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to speak with the press.
Another producer who’s worked at CNN for more than a decade is more pessimistic. They said nothing in the CNN All Access announcement “had much of a wow factor.”
“I don’t think this is gonna make much of a splash when consumers are tired of shelling out for streaming services,” the producer said.
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Research firm Kantar Media cited data showing that the number of paid streaming services per US household fell to 4.1 this summer. And Deloitte found in March that 35% of US consumers said they had cut back on entertainment subscriptions in the prior three months due to financial concerns.
But CNN isn’t alone. ESPN and Fox have each launched direct-to-consumer versions of their TV networks in recent months.
A CNN spokesperson referred Business Insider to a statement. The news organization said the new app will give audiences “one centralized destination” for CNN’s journalism.
CNN executives will tell staffers more about the new service’s go-to-market strategy at a meeting on October 23.
CNN aims to avoid another flop and build trust
This is CNN’s latest attempt to solve streaming. Its first try, CNN+, imploded in less than a month, and its second effort, CNN Max, will leave HBO Max after this new service launches.
CNN+ was shuttered one day shy of its one-month mark in April 2022 by executives at then-new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. The fledgling service had about 150,000 subscribers, Axios reported, but CNBC had reported that it had fewer than 10,000 daily active users in its first two weeks. CNN spent about $300 million and hired hundreds of staffers for CNN+, Axios reported at the time.
Unlike CNN+, this new service isn’t betting big on original programming or new shows, like “Jake Tapper’s Book Club.” Instead, its value proposition is centered on access to CNN’s video feed and all of its website, which has a paywall for power-users. Last October, CNN started asking frequent website visitors to pay $3.99 a month, or $29.99 a year, for full access.
CNN All Access is “an essential step in CNN’s evolution,” designed to reflect “how audiences engage with the news today,” Alex MacCallum, CNN’s digital products and services head, said in a statement.
It comes as some news organizations are learning that their audience is increasingly engaging with the news through social media and podcasts — or not at all. Many Americans don’t trust the news media at all, with only 28% saying they have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of trust in traditional media to report “fully, accurately and fairly,” according to a study released in October by Gallup.
CNN in particular is trusted by only 21% of Americans who vote or lean Republican, and 58% of Democratic voters and those who lean that way, according to a Pew Research Center study from June.
And like most TV networks, CNN is contending with shrinking TV ratings as cord-cutting continues.
CNN was the seventh-highest-rated cable channel in primetime in the US in the week ending October 12, according to Nielsen. The news network averaged 459,000 viewers from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Eastern Time, compared to 2.3 million at Fox News and 814,000 at rival MSNBC.
Staffers hope CNN All Access is given time
One producer said there’s some worry at CNN that the new product won’t be given time to get off the ground, given the quick yanking of CNN+ the last time the network tried to start a streaming service.
“I just worry that execs are going to see the numbers after a few months and the content strategy will change and people will get laid off,” the producer said. “I hope I’m wrong.”
