$5.99/month, With 8-12 Live Daily And Weekly Shows To Start

At some point this spring, CNN will finally flip the switch and go live with CNN+, the new paid streaming service that it’s been touting for months now — and one for which the network has gone on an ambitious hiring spree, in addition to having green-lit dozens of shows and other content, all in the hope that news junkies and general CNN audiences will decide to pay up for another streaming subscription.

As the launch date draws near, the full scope of the offering that will be available to subscribers is also coming into focus. For one thing, CNN is set to announce on Thursday, March 3, that the forthcoming streaming service will be available for $5.99 per month, or $59.99 for an annual subscription.

For subscribers who get in on the ground floor, CNN also plans to offer the following CNN+ discount: 50% off the monthly cost of a subscription for as long as you remain a subscriber — as long as you sign up within the first four weeks of launch.

For a pricing comparison, Fox News Media’s streaming service Fox Nation likewise costs $5.99 per month, or $64.99 on an annual basis. Said another way, anyone who signs up for CNN+ within the first four weeks of its launch will pay half of what Fox Nation subscribers pay — although the two streamers are built around two very different value propositions.

Fox’s, for example, is very much meant as a supplementary, add-on experience for Fox News Channel superfans. The network isn’t at this point trying for a volume play, and isn’t stacking the streamer with a purposely expansive library of content — nor having as many Fox personalities as possible pulling double-duty and show up on the streamer. Some of them do so, but Fox Nation’s purpose is more about the strategic curation of content (examples include the Kevin Costner-led docuseries Yellowstone: One-Fifty, coming in the fourth quarter) that Fox thinks its streaming fans will enjoy.

CNN is trying something very different, which we’ll come to. First, let’s talk about some important highlights about the service:

We still don’t have an official launch date yet. But we do know how subscribers will interact with CNN’s streamer — per a CNN+ FAQ page, subscribers will do that within one single, standalone mobile app, which will allow for toggling between CNN’s live TV feed as well as the content available through an add-on CNN+ subscription. “CNN will have a single app where CNN+ subscribers can access CNN+ programming and pay TV subscribers can get the TV Everywhere experience they have enjoyed for many years,” that FAQ explains.

The language around a launch date, meanwhile, has changed a bit — at least externally. As recently as December, when CNN announced it had poached Chris Wallace from Fox News to helm a CNN+ show, CNN was still pointing to a “Q1 2022” launch date for CNN+ in its press release about Wallace. At some point, that wording was changed in future communications from the network, to clarify that CNN+ will go live “this spring.”

As far as the streamer’s content goes, we’ve gotten a steady drip of show announcements and news about big-name hires over the last several months. On Wednesday, February 23, CNN condensed all that into a much clearer picture of what all, exactly, will be ready to consume on CNN+ starting Day 1.

“CNN+’s dynamic slate of daily, live and weekly programming will offer our subscribers a front row seat to breaking news, exclusive interviews and in-depth reporting,” said Rebecca Kutler, Senior Vice President and Head of Programming for CNN+, said as part of that launch slate announcement. “From CNN’s top journalists to the brand new personalities joining CNN+, world-class storytellers will bring their expertise and smart perspectives to our audience every single day.”

Before we dive into what that launch slate looks like — the unveiling of that slate, as well as the pricing, does still leave at least two critically important questions unanswered for the moment:

• Now-departed CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker’s ouster, for example, couldn’t have come at a worse time for the network. He’s been described as the architect and a driving force behind the scenes to get CNN+ up and running. It’s probably a bit of a stretch to assume this new product will debut in exactly the same manner as it would have with Zucker’s hand on the wheel. This is a gross oversimplification, but while Zucker’s replacement has now been named, the potential impact on CNN+ feels a bit like the stress that might ensue from swapping out pilots in midair for a plane that’s also still being built in-flight.
• It’s also not entirely clear what the end-game is here for CNN+. Partly because the Streaming Wars, as a concept, is really just another way of talking about the never-ending battle for people’s attention. And if Netflix
  NFLX
  — or even CNN’s main TV feed — has my attention right now, then it follows that CNN+ does not. So, it’s probably not right to say this is meant to be a purely additive experience for CNN’s existing audience, because the new streamer would presumably pull them away, to some degree, from watching CNN on TV.

The lack of complete clarity around the end game for CNN+ is also a direct function of that first bullet point. Zucker is out — and Chris Licht, executive producer and showrunner for CBS’ The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, is in. New leadership, with potentially a very different idea for what direction the network ought to go in.

CNN is set to get folded into Discovery
DISCA
, upon completion of the Discovery and WarnerMedia merger this spring. Prior to his work on The Late Show, Licht served as executive producer of MSNBC’s Morning Joe and before that, CBS This Morning. He’s coming into the top job at CNN at a time when the network’s ratings have plunged — and, also, with the chatter being that Licht will oversee a shift in emphasis at CNN toward hard news and away from more partisan, personality-driven programming.

What that means for the CNN+ lineup, which is quite heavily dependent for the moment on personalities, is anyone’s guess.

For now, I’ve gathered every show announcement and host announced so far for CNN+ in one single piece here. CNN, meanwhile, has likewise made clear that a subset of that programming will be available on Day 1, and you can read those details here.

On a more speculative note: It also feels, at this point, a little like CNN+ as a standalone service will acclimate some of its subscribers toward streaming-first, or even streaming-only behavior. Consider, for example, the fact that CNN will have the ability to interrupt the CNN+ live programming with breaking news coverage — that is to say, breaking news coverage presented by a dedicated CNN+ breaking news team. In other words, there will never be a CNN simulcast available through CNN+.

There’s a delicate balance to strike here, in terms of making this product robust enough that people want to pay for it — but not so robust that it forecloses the possibility of those subscribers wanting to also tune in to CNN’s TV programming.