againstCNN+ announced the termination of its service less than a month after its launch.Axios, an American news websiteCiting data, it was pointed out that the reason for the early termination of this service was not only the product positioning itself and the failure to attract enough subscribers, but also that CNN itself estimated that it would face losses of at least $10 billion in the next few years before breaking even in 2025, and would start making profits in 2026. It may be worried that it would be difficult to maintain service operations before achieving this goal, so it decided to close it early.
In fact, many in the market believe that CNN's launch of a service called CNN+ actually presents a product duplication problem. Originally conceived, CNN+ would offer CNN's daily broadcast, along with new and original content, and even allow users to choose to play backtracked content. However, with the existing CNN app still available and offering the daily broadcast, it seems difficult to attract users to the CNN+ service with new programming and original content. This is especially true given that many people already subscribe to streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, and are generally hesitant to subscribe to CNN+.
In addition, CNN's parent company Warner Media and DiscoveryMerge into a new companyThis will obviously make users wait and see, so that after the CNN+ service was launched, it only attracted about 15 subscribers, which was significantly lower than CNN's original target.
According to data cited by Axios, CNN expects to spend $2021 million in 1 preparing the CNN+ subscription service, with a launch date of late March 2022. While the initial $3 million in setup costs are expected to be recouped, CNN will incur a $1 million loss due to expenses such as content copyright fees. However, CNN anticipates tripling revenue and reducing losses to $4 million in 2023, and increasing revenue to $2 million in 3 while reducing losses to $2024 million.
In terms of subscriber numbers, CNN originally expected that the number of subscribers in the global market would exceed 2024 million in 1000, and would exceed 2027 million in 2000. In 2030, it is expected to reach nearly 3000 million subscribers. However, this scale is obviously far behind services such as Netflix and Disney+.
CNN plans to increase CNN+ service revenue to $2025 million in 9, at which point it will break even and start making profits in 2026. It also expects to achieve a profit target of $2030 million in 8.
However, there may be too much uncertainty in this plan, especially when facing the risk of high losses in the early stages. CNN may eventually decide to terminate the CNN+ service early and refund the paid subscription fees to paid subscribers in proportion.
