What you need to know
- CNN+ is reportedly shutting down on April 30.
- The news comes just four weeks after the streaming service launched.
- CNN+ was part of the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia that took place two weeks ago.
CNN is reportedly shutting down just weeks after it launched. It's expected that the news will be officially confirmed today with staff members learning the news imminently.
Citing two people familiar with what's going on, Variety notes that the news comes just two weeks after the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery that put question marks over the future of CNN+ even before it was reported that it had just 10,000 daily viewers.
Spokespersons for CNN and Warner Bros. Discovery could not be reached for immediate comment. The decision puts an end to a venture that people familiar with the matter say rankled David Zaslav, the new CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, from the start. Zaslav was annoyed by the decison of Jason Kilar, the former CEO of WarnerMedia when it was owned by AT&T, to launch CNN+ just weeks before Discovery was set to take over operations.
A similar report by the New York Times notes that the shutdown will take place on April 30, just a week away.
Chris Licht, the incoming president of CNN, called an all-hands meeting among CNN+ staffers for noon on Thursday to share the news.
The news shouldn't be all that surprising given recent reports that the service's launch wasn't a popular one among decision-makers and it remains to be seen what happens next. It was previously suggested that CNN+ content could be rolled into HBO Max at a future date and it's currently unclear whether that's the plan moving forward.
