Say What The Optimistic Launch And Ignominious End Of CNN+

One year Later Say What???? The Optimistic Launch And Ignominious End Of CNN+

The announcement that after an expenditure of something like $300 million, CNN was going to pull its CNN+ streaming service after just a month in operation sent shock waves through the media and entertainment ecosystem. Coming on the heels of a setback for streaming darling Netflix, it looks as though the media equation is set for a major inflection point. And how could I resist speculating about the latest entry to my flops file?

In a announcement in the summer of 2021, CNN formally announced the expected launch of a venture that must have been in the works for a bit. Scheduled for launch in 2022, the company was already purportedly hiring hundreds of people and developing many hours of programming for the fledgling service.

It seemed like a good idea at the time…

Thought Sparks I Rita McGrath

Beware committing when you’re working with assumptions, not knowledge

In the launch announcement, a phrase caught my eye that often serves as a warning (especially when it comes to big flashy ventures). And that was the commitment on the part of senior leaders that the service would definitely “launch in the first quarter of 2022.”

As an article at the time of the launch noted, “What they didn’t want to do is delay the launch. “We have been building this product for quite a while. We have a launch plan,” Morse said. “We have a schedule. We have commitments that we’ve made. We’re ready, so we’re very excited to launch the service.”

What would have to be true for this to work out?

A core element of the discovery driven planning process is to ask the question, “what would have to be true” for a venture to meet its goals. For a venture launching in an established firm, I usually frame this in terms of its ability to make a meaningful contribution to the top-line of the mothership.

Say WHAT???

The parent channel, CNN, averages about 773,000 viewers across a typical day, according to recent research. So you would have to believe that CNN+ was going to be such a hit that it would more than double the footprint of the parent company in subscriber terms in short order. That’s a pretty telling assumption to make.

And McKinsey? The endorsement must have carried a lot of weight....

As Oliver Staley writes in Quartz, “Having McKinsey vouch for a decision sends a signal to the board and investors that management has done its due diligence, and that the best consultants money can buy have signed off on the move, whether it’s a merger or new product launch.”

And McKinsey? The endorsement must have carried a lot of weight.

That rumbling noise you hear? Shifting political territory

me juicy corporate political inside baseball s champion, CNN President Jeff Zucker, ed in a firing that observers compared to a ” by WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar.

parent company of CNN which itself was ctions between the two men had been

ebruary of 2022 (remember, the promised was the “first quarter” of the year – in fact a lace on March 28!).

SOURCE: GETTY IMAGES

PICTURED: KEN JAUTZ, ANDREW MORSE, KASIE

HUNT, CHRIS WALLACE, REX CHAPMAN, ANDERSON

COOPER, AMY ENTELIS, AND MICHAEL BASS AT THE LAUNCH EVENT IN NEW YORK

An inflection point for streaming?

Perhaps a bigger inflection point is at play here, as well. Kevin Westcott, a Principal at Deloitte who studies such things, observed around the time that CNN+ launched that we were in for a dramatic “re-aggregation.” His firm, he observed, “had identified more than 300 unique streaming services in the U.S., but the average household had only four of them. There was just too much out there.”

Have we learned anything at all?

Launching a venture because it suits your needs without meeting the needs of a customer is usually fatally flawed.

Making big splashy investments before testing the underlying assumptions is expensive and often disastrous.

Looking to consultants to confirm what you desperately want to be true is self-deceptive

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In a strategy shift, CEO David Zaslav, who earned $232 million in 2021, has now announced that the strategy of bundling streaming assets HBO and Discovery + isn’t going to happen. The valuedestroying merger has been brutal for diverse talent. And now Comcast is reportedly sniffing around which would further consolidate the media landscape if a merger is permitted.