What was CNN+ supposed to do/be?

CNN+ was supposed to be a streaming service not unlike Disney Plus, Apple Plus, and Youtube TV, but according to CNBC; about three weeks after its initial launch- CNN+ had failed to gain even 10,000 daily users. CNN+ was intended to be a streaming service that gives easy access to news clips in an organized way for 6$ a month, but after its launch and only having 18,000 installs, it needed to shut down. To put in perspective how small that number of subscribers is, Disney Plus had 10 million subscribers on its first day of launch. Maybe it was the lack of advertising that caused CNN+ to not be successful, or maybe it was because you can find any CNN+ news clip you need on youtube for free.

Perhaps if CNN+ had been more advertised then it might have been a bigger success because it was hardly advertised. Personally, I didn’t know that it was going to be an actual thing until the news articles started being published that CNN+ is being shut down only a few weeks after its launch. 

What is the implication of CNN+ failing?

CNN+ failing is a result of poor execution of the vision, and the streaming service going through a rough patch. The streaming services are all going through a rough patch with Netflix just recently announcing that they had a decline in subscribers for the first time in a decade. CNN+ failing could be due to the fact that they hadn’t made any deals with any TV programs, such as Roku and it wasn’t available on Android TV. Because of this limitation, by the time they had aligned themselves with Roku on April 11, it was already declining with its sparse subscribers.

Another reason for CNN+ failing could be because it was just a bad time to start up a brand new streaming service. As mentioned earlier, even Netflix is struggling with maintaining subscribers, and if even something as renowned as Netflix is struggling with subscribers, then what hope does a brand new streaming service that was hardly advertised have at succeeding? Apart from the fact that CNN+ was hardly advertised, it was also a strange idea in itself, that might have not been thought through completely. I say this because all of CNN+’s videos were available for free on youtube. This poses the question if you can find all the videos on youtube or online for free, why would you pay 6$ a month for no reason? 

Sushil Prabhu, who is the CEO and the chairman of Dropp attempts to warn companies about starting their own online streaming service because, “‘The digital market’s incredible growth over the past three years is to blame — almost every month, a new digital content service launches online that offers consumers more choices than ever, and that’s before selecting music, video, news, podcast or gaming digital service options.’”