As the ancient proverb says, “if at first you don’t succeed at doing the idiotic thing you were trying to do, raise the price and try to do it all over again.”
CNN’s effort to launch CNN+, a paid streaming service, at a time when its core ratings are crashing is confusing observers who wonder why the news network thinks people will pay for CNN when they won’t even watch it for free.
CNN President Jeff Zucker billed CNN+ as being for “CNN superfans, news junkies and fans of quality non-fiction programming.”
Spoiler alert: CNN superfans are almost as real as Bigfoot and less likely to be spotted in the wild.
CNN charged $2.99 a month for CNN+ which launched in March of 2022, at a cost of $300 million, and shut down in April 2022, at a cost of $300 million.
Now let’s do it all over again but charge even more.
CNN is trying again at a full-service streaming subscription.
The news network announced Thursday its “All Access” subscription will launch in the U.S. on October 28 and cost $6.99 per month or $69.99 annually.
People didn’t want it for $4 a month in 2022, but with inflation, surely they will be ready to pay $7.00 a month for it. Right?
What are CNN’s ratings again?
Among all cable networks, CNN slipped to eighth place from sixth in total viewers and dropped from No. 13 to No. 21 in the demo during primetime. It fell to sixth place from fourth during total day with total viewers and dropped down one spot to No. 9 in the demo.
When you’re in eighth place and dropping, it’s the perfect time to launch a paid streaming service because when people won’t watch you for free, surely they’ll pay to do it.
