Yesterday, we talked about the news that CNN's new streaming service had only picked up 10,000 subscribers, and I wrote: "$5.99 a month for CNN is pretty ridiculous. 10,000 subscribers... hilarious."
But — curious about what was actually on CNN+ — I looked at its webpage and was surprised to see that you can subscribe for only $2.99 a month — and "save 50% for life" — if you sign up by April 26. So there has been pressure to sign up before that offer ends. That makes the 10,000 number look much worse.
Anyway, what is on CNN+?
CNN+ subscribers experience:
- Live daily and weekly shows as they happen from familiar faces like Anderson Cooper and Poppy Harlow and fresh personalities like distinguished anchor Chris Wallace, basketball legend Rex Chapman and acclaimed radio host Audie Cornish
- An impressive library of award-winning content from original series like Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy to CNN Films like Blackfish and RBG
- Interview Club, an interactive interview experience where your questions are answered live by CNN reporters, industry leaders and expert guests.
I love the phrase "fresh personalities like distinguished anchor Chris Wallace." How on earth is Chris Wallace a "fresh personality"? Freshly moved from Fox News. Was Fox keeping him on ice? I guess it's that he's not one of the "familiar faces like Anderson Cooper and Poppy Harlow," because potential subscribers for CNN+ would not have had a chance to familiarize themselves with Wallace. He was on Fox!
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75 comments:
Maybe, just maybe, another factor might be “plus” fatigue. Now that America has ponied up for Netflix, Prime, Hulu, Apple TV etc etc etc, content kingpins have decided that those are now “basic” services, with borderline crap for content. As you browse, more and more of the premium content requires an additional fee — either a hefty rental, or an additional premium subscription on that channel. There seems to be a real effort to push the consumer into accepting this new reality. I am majorly pissed off, and learning to do with less consumption. Hek, I’m old enough to remember when Cable was advertised as the end of commercial interruption — because supported by subscribers! Maybe it’s not just me revisiting the “plus plus plus” content creep.
CNN+? $5.99 a month
Getting preached at by Tater Stelter at DFW? Free
Pulling the plug on 10,000 subscribers? Priceless
There are some things people won't buy without a gun to their head, for everything else, there's Mastercard.
...familiar faces like Anderson Cooper and Poppy Harlow.
Rare footage from a CNN+ programming meeting...
"Poppies. Poppies... Poppies will put them to sleep."
Quick question: What's a Poppy Harlow? How do you prepare it?
I wouldn't describe Rex Chapman as a legend. Excellent college player, mediocre pro. Hardly legendary.
Chris Wallace, fresh? Like my mother used to say, "fresh as day old bread."
I somewhat agree with Caroline. I think the issue is exacerbated with CNN, because it’s content is couched as news. I have plenty of free sources that will metaphorically scream news at me all day whether I pay them or not. Tuning out of news requires effort. Paying for more of it, especially in CNN shallow short form, seems crazy. That’s before you laugh at their pathetic marketing.
Back to Caroline. I’d pay for good, marketing free content, but that is not up for sale. I too recall the enticement to paid media content (those of us old enough to remember the first cable tv vs free over the air broadcasts) was no commercials. Now we have TVs that will push their own commercials whether your content has it or not. And this is a time of scarcity, when you can’t even buy the goods being marketed. But you can buy media content you’ve already consumed hundreds of time. It is fresh!
You can find entire episodes of Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown on YouTube. Perhaps not every episode - I don't know. But why pay when it can be found online for free? I did a similar search for the Tucci Italy series, and found one episode. But the search pulled up all kinds of different shows on Italy. Why would Tucci's be special when there are already plenty of other choices? There are almost 20 Rick Steves videos on Italy available for free on YouTube.
And Chris Wallace? I need to pay for that?
"I love the phrase "fresh personalities like distinguished anchor Chris Wallace."'
Yes, that is funny. Also useful info: to CNN writers, with their fingers on the pulse of the CNN audience, Wallace is "fresh." The tell in this fiasco is not so much the lack of demand but the fact that there is a bubble in which professionals could sit around a table and think it was a great idea--a bubble eagerly joined by "Fox" personality Wallace, a tell on him, as if we needed one.
"where your questions are answered live by CNN reporters"
Like Stelter answering UChicago students?
Why pay extra to get lied to?? Are people THAT desperate for left wing talking points??
Fresh like, if you were to eat some 10 day old maggot infested dog shit and then vomit it up, it would be considered "fresh".
Rex Chapman was no "basketball legend." He was an okay player for the cheating University of Kentucky. Creighton's Doug McDermott was much, much better than Chapman. Doug was the college Player of the Year.
Chapman's now a hardcore progressive.
We've wanted a la carte cable for years and we're getting it with all the pay services. But if you're paying for a premium channel, you expect premium content. CNN can't just take the stuff that used to be free and put it behind a paywall. Lot so of newspapers have tried it, how many succeeded? Most just pissed off their readers. Which is what CNN will do.
So they have 10,000 subscribers, bringing in about $400,000 in revenue (accounting for the discount). How many CNN watchers will they lose in the process?
I'd rather rent DVDs of "Night Stalker." That involves an imaginary wire service call Independent News Service with a reporter who investigates stories of vampires, werewolves, etc. Much more believable than CNN or CNN+.
Yeah, I took a look at their page too. Its just more of the same crap Sandwhich. BTW, other than a few libtards, and Network execs, does anyone really LIKE Chris Wallace. I've never met anyone who thought he was anything special. A barely competent mediocrity. If his name had been Chris Wallenchensky, or Chris Smith, I doubt we'd know of him.
I think the '+' logo design looks too much like the WWII Wehrmacht cross.
Offering a discount on a life sentence.
How wonderful.
Curious George said...
Chris Wallace, fresh? Like my mother used to say, "fresh as day old bread."
"Fresh? Fresh as monkey's breath, brother."
Quick question: Where can one go to obtain actual reporting of daily events at the national, state and local level, delivered without commentary or analysis, sorta like what CNN did when it began? A quick 15 to 30 minute rotation of updated news stories demonstrating actual reporting of simple factual information from outside the newsroom, rather than bloviating opinion spewed either one-sided or in contention with opposing opinions?
I can't think of any such place.
"Let's take a closer look at CNN+"
There's no "there" there, so a "closer look" is not possible.
CNN’s ratings are abysmal. If they changed their content back to normal accurate news, and ditch all the lying opinionaters, the ratings would improve and hence so would their bottom line. They don’t need subscribers to do this. They could even include these Italy or sports or whatever content to bring some of that documentary vibe in. Just do a damn better job in the non-plus.
Curiosity led to me search for Rex Chapman's role at CNN+.
Per Variety: "Chapman’s weekly CNN Plus show isn’t described as a talk show, but rather a program that includes “intimate conversations with athletes, entertainers and everyday heroes as Chapman looks for the silver lining beyond today’s toughest headlines.”
Hmmm. Sounds like somewhat-less-than-compelling viewing to Wilbur. I'm not particularly thirsting for intimate conversations with athletes, entertainers and everyday heroes.
Everyday heroes? What a ludicrous News/Entertainment phrase.
Either the premise of CNN+ is not interesting or it could be interesting but is not communicated well. So ... next we'll see "sign up, first month free, cancel at any time" promotions.
Remember the Chevy Vega? GM rolled out this piece of crap with great fan fair. Unfortunately with it's cast aluminum engine block, it overheated with regularity. In order to sells this lemon, GM offered a 60,000 mile warranty (unheard of at the time) on the engine. It still met it's ignominious demise. Same with occur with CNN-.
The only way I will try any of these channels is if I can do a month-by-month subscription.
I have one (AppleTV+) that I don't want and really should cancel.
But I hear HBO Max has some good content.
I will make a list of recommendations from friends and then get it for a month, binge, and cancel...
Mike of S- Night Stalker was indeed a great show. Darren McGavin I believe was the lead actor. Gritty. Precursor to the X Files. I remember some of the shows were actually king of scary. Highly recommended.
The American public is too stupid to appreciate the intellectual elite content from CNN+. It's failing because they aimed too high.
CNN = crap, so CNN+ = crap+
Or so I'm told. I've got better things to do with my time.
I signed up for a free trial at Fox Nation because there was an interview on Tucker Carlson Today I wanted to access. While I had the free trial, I poked around and found a few other shows I enjoy. While a lot of it isn't my cup of tea, there's enough there to be worth the $2/month my subscription cost me. If there was a hook to get me to try out CNN+, I'd probably give it a try, but they haven't offered anything at all I think I'd like to watch. Carlson's show continues to be the main draw for me to Fox Nation. The hour long interview format where the host actually lets his guest talk has introduced me to a lot of new people and ideas and showed be other sides of people who are already familiar. The guests are not strictly right-leaning. Many of them are to the left. They just have to be brave. It's not that Carlson goes on the attack. He is the pinnacle of civility and obviously enjoys the conversation with them. They need to be brave because of what their colleagues and friends do to them because they went on a show with Tucker. I have often thought Professor Althouse would be a good guest on the show.
You can pay for your pro-The Party "news"
I'm glad I'm not the only one who scoffed at basketball legend for Rex Chapman.
Why isn't anyone comparing CNN+ to Fox Nation. It seems like the same thing. Is it successful? I know Tucker has a daily chat show there. Do people pay for that?
CNN+. "Must see TV" it is not. I guess you have to go to NBC for that--according to NBC.
MSNBC used to "Lean forward" so far they fell over. Now they are telling us "This is who we are." You probably don't want to look too closely. They seem to specialize in fabulists (Rachel Maddow), gullible gossip mongers (Lawrence O'Donnell), homophobes (Joy Reid), and washed-up turncoat political hacks (Morning Joe).
Meanwhile, over at Fox News: "Always fair and balanced" and "We report. You decide." Tucker Carlson owns political commentary on cable news--and get this: he used to work at both CNN and MSNBC, which are obviously both run by idiots.
Roger Ailes may have been a sexist pig, but he was a genius. I think he would have considered that fair and balanced reporting about himself.
The subscription thing is a big turnoff for many, including me. I subscribe to a few substack accounts, like Glenn Loury or Matt Tabibi. We used to watch Discovery programs but the channel is now pushing their "plus" streaming service by using half the programming time for commercials. I guess the theory is to drive us to subscribe to get away from commercials. We just quit watching at all.
I am tempted to go out and subscribe to a bunch of substacks just to do my part to heighten CNN's humiliation. Are there any journalists who were hounded out of CNN and went onto substack, like Bari Weiss from NYT, or Matt Yglesias from whatever Leftist rag he was at (was it Vox?)
Yeah. I pay for Fox Nation because I wanted to see Tucker's long-form interviews, which are excellent.
I used the money I saved when I canceled the Chicago Tribune.
Carlson's show continues to be the main draw for me to Fox Nation. The hour long interview format where the host actually lets his guest talk has introduced me to a lot of new people and ideas and showed be other sides of people who are already familiar.
Yes, I subscribed for that. I have not looked at any other content.
Mason G said...
CNN = crap, so CNN+ = crap+
"That, plus crap."
Eleanor has it exactly right about Tucker's interviews on Fox Nation. I signed up to watch him interview Glenn Loury last year and it has been money well spent. He asks open-ended questions and lets the guests talk.
Mike of Snoqualmie said...
I'd rather rent DVDs of "Night Stalker."
************
Myself, I'd rather watch "Night Court".
The '+', besides having that unfortunate echo, suggests disconnection. Lines approach but bend away.
Right now, YouTube is where I get most of my content. Lost in the Pond does hilarious comparisons between the U.S. and Britain. Emma Cruises and Tips for Travellers gives me my cruise fix. Abroad in Japan and Sharmeleon for my Japanophile fix. Watched Walker and Rainy Guy for my comfort background noise. Alistair Becket-King, OzzyMan, There I Ruined It, Trevor Wallace, RiffTrax, and Daniel Thrasher for my humor fix, and Nerdrotic and StevenCrowder for my news fix. Oh, and Hats Off Entertainment for culture dox.
And let me recommend now, Lemmino's doc, especially this one on Jack the Ripper. Astonishingly good.
I find that Wisconsin Right Now is worth going to. It covers Wisconsin, where I live, heavily and does a better job than the Journal Sentinel does with keeping up with stories. But it has a side car which shows ongoing national stories so I know if there's been a shooting or some other outrage or Twitter trend.
And I look at Real Clear Politics/World. That isn't news but that site always presents both narratives so I can be sure I know them. Like this, today, on the November elections:
Democrats Are Sleepwalking Into a Senate Disaster Simon Bazelon, Substack
In Red States, It's Open Season on Women's Rights Jill Filipovic, CNN
Why Hispanics Gave Up on the Left Alex Perez, UnHerd
Manchin's Cruel Move To Push Millions Back Into Poverty Ryan Cooper, MSNBC
Blogger Howard said...
The American public is too stupid to appreciate the intellectual elite content from CNN+. It's failing because they aimed too high.
I think the term for this delusion is "‘elite overproduction’, ie, a lot of people who have been led to think that their college degree means that they will automatically become a well-off, influential, and high-status person."
Howard, you exemplify this every time you comment.
I wouldn't describe Rex Chapman as a legend.
They found a journeyman NBA player, and dubbed him a legend? Do they know he's a white guy?
Makes me wonder about the target demographic.
Weekend at Bourdain's.
Michael K: "I think the term for this delusion is "‘elite overproduction’, ie, a lot of people who have been led to think that their college degree means that they will automatically become a well-off, influential, and high-status person."
Howard, you exemplify this every time you comment."
************
What evidence has Howard ever offered that would indicate he has a college degree?
Can Of Cheese for Hunter said...
You can pay for your pro-The Party "news"
======
is that like teachers paying union dues to elect the party that funds the pensions
I watched "Night Stalker" back in the day. I'm watching it again because I enjoyed it then. It's still good and recommended. But, my statement about INS is still accurate: More believable than CNN or CNN+.
"Let's take a closer look at CNN+"
Like we used to say back in the 60s... Let's not, and say we did!
Having a streaming service to go along with your regular service is perfectly reasonable. Starting a streaming service which does nothing but provide more of the same that no one wanted does not seem like a viable business model. Given the sort of employees CNN has, it has all the signs of an organization that knows it is doomed and everyone is looting the treasury before it all falls apart.
Is it possible that the people at CNN actually believe that they are producing news?
What evidence has Howard ever offered that would indicate he has a college degree?
Good point. I thought everybody in Massachusetts had a college degree. Coulda fooled me.
Well, Discovery TV's Cooking Channel has been running the insufferable Bourdain's shows since his demise. Oh, wait! Discovery now owns CNN, + or not.
Market research probably asked people if they would pay for a serious and non partial news service and got a big yes, then offered the same old shyte.
How on earth is Chris Wallace a "fresh personality"?
The test audience preferred it to "hackneyed old blowhard".
"What evidence has Howard ever offered that would indicate he has a college degree?"
He has alluded to be some sort of engineer, but he may have been just some sort of state paid construction supervisor. He is irredeemingly racist and has an unhealthy fear of people who earn their bread with their hands.Oh. And he desperately wants you to forget he voted form Biden.
This posting appears to have a "MAGA loves Fox" bent - a perfect approach to permit the Trump Fellowship to attack Chris Wallace, the so-called traitor who could no longer put up with Fox lies about the goodness of TFG.
I don't think much of CNN anchors these days - particularly Anderson Cooper, who should be on later because he puts me to sleep and Don Lemon, who is all about Don Lemon. But the Fox Primetime folks are about the same except there are more of them.
In earlier times, watching CNN was the only way to find out what was going on in the world. Ted Turner had the largest foreign news operation in the world with reporters everywhere or so it seemed. Every hour you found out the cable channel you were watching when the distinctive voice of James Earl Jones proclaimed: "This is CNN."
But Turner's 24-hour news programing was the beginning of the end of entertaining and enlightened news and we have moved on to absolute polarization by conservative news carriers criticizing liberal news channels and vice versa - even making talkers waste time personally criticizing one another. Sadly the media should never become the news. Theoretically news consumers are left with the absurd assumption nowadays that conservative/liberal alignments make a difference when they do not. All supposed lies from one side are countered by twisted views from the other side or just plain non-reporting of bad-leaning news. Political lies have moved from inside government halls straight into our living rooms and smart phones to support favorable polling results.
Why do this? It is called illegal attainment of economic rents such as the Kushners receiving $1.2 billion from Qatar to bail out Javanka's 666 Fifth Avenue fiasco and more than $2.0 billion from the Saudis to start up a brand-spanking-new investment business where Jared has no talent. How much are these illegalities endangering American pocketbooks and security? How would this have taken place without TFG?
The American public is too stupid to appreciate the intellectual elite content from CNN+. It's failing because they aimed too high.
ummmmm........sarcasm much??
If I were trying to salvage this CNN+ thing, I'd try and leverage CNN's archives of news coverage and turn it into a kind of quasi-history channel. Want to relive the fall of the Soviet Union blow by blow? Here's a playlist of all our news reports about the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Congo War? The Starr Report and Clinton impeachment? The Balkan War? The end of Apartheid? They have enough content that they could probably assemble an hourlong show for every day, and not have to pay overpriced anchors to record a talkshow either. Relaunch with an 100 or 200 hours ready to go, a pipeline to cobble together new content every day, a handful of contemporary shows/commentary, and target it at people who are bored of hearing about Nazis on the History Channel.
"If I were trying to salvage this CNN+ thing, I'd try and leverage CNN's archives of news coverage and turn it into a kind of quasi-history channel."
That is an amazingly good idea. I'd be willing to pay 2 or 3 bucks a month for something like that. It would make for an interesting research tool.
“If I were trying to salvage this CNN+ thing, I'd try and leverage CNN's archives of news coverage and turn it into a kind of quasi-history channel. Want to relive the fall of the Soviet Union blow by blow? Here's a playlist of all our news reports about the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The Congo War? The Starr Report and Clinton impeachment? The Balkan War? The end of Apartheid? “
That’s a great idea. They probably wouldn’t be able to stop themselves from wrecking it with woke bloviating, though.
I like Balfegor's idea too. Probably not enough to pay money though.
And I'm OK with Nazis on the History Channel. It's the ones (a few real but mostly imaginary) on the news channels that bug me.
Why do this? It is called illegal attainment of economic rents such as the Kushners receiving $1.2 billion from Qatar to bail out Javanka's 666 Fifth Avenue fiasco and more than $2.0 billion from the Saudis to start up a brand-spanking-new investment business where Jared has no talent. How much are these illegalities endangering American pocketbooks and security? How would this have taken place without TFG?
Now do Jesse Jackson. Then do the Clinton Foundation. Follow up with the Pelosi family. Round it out with Hunter and Uncle Jim.
Commenter Howard said...
The American public is too stupid to appreciate the intellectual elite content from CNN+. It's failing because they aimed too high.
*************
Howard, you dumbass, wanna ''splain why Fox News's demographics are so much better than CNN's? And how CNN has LOST major demographics..?
https://49ultra.com/fox-vs-cnn-ratings-2021-2022/
https://www.cnsnews.com/index.php/blog/emily-robertson/democrats-watch-fox-news-more-cnn-or-msnbc
Or will you tell us that all the dumb people fled CNN to Fox, that CNN's audience is now simply "more selective"??
Is that what you call a "business plan"? Did it work for "Spinal Tap"?
S N O R T
It's gotta SUCK waking up in the morning being you, and facing another day...being you.
But Turner's 24-hour news programing was the beginning of the end of entertaining and enlightened news and we have moved on to absolute polarization by conservative news carriers criticizing liberal news channels and vice versa - even making talkers waste time personally criticizing one another.
gadfly has an allergy to thee truth. No surprise.
I love it when the root beer scampi jigs up a bigmouth effingdoomkopf who likes to show his homework with five sigma precision.
What was it we used to say... Rotflmao?
effinayright said...
I'd rather rent DVDs of "Night Stalker."
************
Mike of Snoqualmie said...
Myself, I'd rather watch "Night Court".
************
Hell, I'd rather watch "'Night, Mother."
Even if CNN was any good at what they do, there isn't enough shit going on in the world to merit 24 hour coverage of it.
They only need to be on for 60 minutes each evening, if that long.
They should probably just be a subsidiary of some other network, to be shown between the afternoon talk shows and the nightly sitcoms.
I wouldn't describe Rex Chapman as a legend. Excellent college player, mediocre pro. Hardly legendary.
I had to look up who Rex Chapman was, but that's probably because basketball is my least favourite of the five major team sports. He was semi-legendary in high school and at Kentucky, I guess, but pretty meh as a pro. He never won a ring in the NBA or even came close: in 12 years as a pro, his teams made the playoffs only four times and were beaten in the first round each time. (He was good at not turning the ball over, so there's that.)
"I like CNN so much that I am willing to pay $70 a year to watch even more of it." -- Things nobody ever said ever.
Hell, I'd rather watch "'Night, Mother."
I'd rather watch "Mother Night."
I wouldn't rather watch Howard Campbell Jr's wartime broadcasts.
I get enough of him here.
"What evidence has Howard ever offered that would indicate he has a college degree?"
"Anybody can make a mistake but it takes a college degree to screw everything up."
Howard said @ 9:40
Might wanna dial back those brown mumblers before you go bangin' on the laptop there champ.
LOL. What's it been? A decade or so? And he still gets some of you guys with the dumbest make believe comments.
Save your ammo for the ridiculous made with sincerity.
CNN+ Streaming Service Is Shutting Down a Month After Launching
Move to end service on April 30 comes days after CNN’s parent company WarnerMedia was taken over by Discovery
WSJ
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