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On Thursday, April 21, Variety reported that Warner Bros. Discovery is all set to shut down the CNN Plus streaming service a mere month after its launch. The decision comes just two weeks after CNN's owner Warner Bros. merged with Discovery to become Warner Bros. Discovery.
Interestingly, CNN's streaming service will be nixed after an exact month of its release. As per Variety, WB Discovery is set to shut the service down on April 30. It was launched on March 29.
Meanwhile, the publication further reported that current Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav was unhappy with Jason Kilar's (the former Time Warner CEO) decision to launch the CNN streaming platform just weeks away from completing the mergers.
CNN Plus to shut down: Possible reasons explored
The platform will return, just not as an individual entity
Along with the announcement of CNN Plus' termination, Discovery's streaming head JB Perrette provided a statement hinting at the reasons behind the platform's cancelation. He said:
"We have very exciting opportunities ahead in the streaming space, and CNN, one of the world's premier reputational assets, will play an important role there."
This statement hints at the plans to merge all separate streaming platforms under one umbrella. Last December, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav insinuated his potential plans to integrate all platforms under one umbrella. While speaking to Variety at the time, Zalsav said:
"We're going to make them available in a way that is simplest for the consumer."
As of now, Warner Bros. Discovery operates streaming platforms like Discovery, HBO Max, and CNN Plus. If a new streaming arm was expected to merge all three entities into one single unified platform, then that might give their streaming service a competing edge over others.
Debts
According to the Motley Fool, Discovery had a $15 billion debt. However, their acquisition of Warner Bros. cost them $43 billion, which brings the total debt to around $58 billion.
This could be one of the reasons why Warner Bros. Discovery is planning to snip off excess weight in the operational budget by having three separate streaming platforms.
Cost and competitive edge
The company's HBO Max platform costs around $9.99 a month for a plan with ads, while the ads-free plan is available for $14.99 a month. Furthermore, Discovery+ in the US is available for $4.99 (with ads) per month, while an ads-free version of the subscription costs around $6.99. On top of that, the CNN Plus subscription costs around $5.99 per month with a discounted price of $2.99 per month as an introductory offer.
The total costs of these subscriptions would come down to almost over $20 per month (with ads) to over $27 per month (without ads). Comparatively, a Disney Plus bundle in the US charges around $13.99 and includes Disney+, Hulu (with ads), and ESPN+. This would mean that the bundle provided by Disney would also have multiple TV channels like CNN's competitor ABC under their Hulu package.
The aforementioned factors might have been the reasons behind CNN Plus' closure. However, it is expected that the streaming services will be unified and repackaged to be aggressively priced against the likes of Disney+, albeit at the cost of laying-off multiple employees under CNN Plus.
