As pay TV revenues diminish, CNN puts a paywall on its website
As a seasoned cinema devotee with decades of news consumption under my belt, I find myself at a crossroads with the recent announcement from CNN. Having grown accustomed to their unparalleled journalism for free, I must admit a pang of hesitation at the prospect of parting with cold hard cash for this once complimentary service.
Effective from Tuesday, CNN’s popular news website will now require payment from its users.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s news platform CNN has decided to implement a paid subscription service on their website, CNN.com. This means that American users will have to pay $3.99 for access or opt for an annual subscription of $29.99. In return, they will get unlimited access to the site, which attracts approximately 150 million unique visitors worldwide every month.
According to a memo by Alex MacCallum, the executive vice president of digital products and services at CNN, users may need to subscribe once they’ve read a certain number of complimentary articles.
CNN is making this change because they’re facing challenges common to traditional TV. With people spending more time watching online videos and fewer subscribing to traditional pay TV services, the revenues from cable and satellite subscriptions have been decreasing. This trend, coupled with lower ratings, has strained CNN’s profits in recent years.
It remains to be seen if people will be willing to pay for a product they’ve been using without charge for many years; this will serve as a test. Mark Thompson, who assumed the role of CNN chairman last year, was instrumental in transforming The New York Times into a thriving digital subscription platform during his time with that company.
MacCallum’s memo indicates that subscribers will enjoy perks such as access to unique election features, original documentaries, a carefully selected daily assortment of top-tier journalism, and reduced digital advertisements. As for CNN, insiders reveal they are crafting video content with some of their on-screen personalities, intended to be accessible only to paid subscribers on the website.
The launch of the subscriber plan comes more than a year after CNN’s false start into the streaming marketplace. The network launched CNN+ last year with a slate of original programs hosted by big-name talent at the network. The costly venture was shuttered days after its launch once Warner Bros. Discovery took ownership of the network in 2022.
CNN has created a stream of news programming for its parent company’s Max platform.
In terms of viewership, CNN lags behind Fox News and MSNBC according to Nielsen ratings. However, all cable networks are grappling with an existential issue due to cord-cutting, which is causing them to lose revenue and decrease their reach to consumers via traditional television. The contracts they have with pay TV providers restrict them from offering their channels directly to consumers without these intermediaries.
Fox News provides a subscription service known as Fox Nation, offering documentaries and lifestyle content tailored to its primarily conservative viewers. This service includes select programs from the previous day on demand.
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2024-10-01 21:01