CNN shall suspend its streaming service less than one month after its launch Business news

CNN’s parent company is shutting down its CNN + streaming service just weeks after its long-awaited launch.

After being advertised as a bold entry by CNN into the so-called “streaming wars”, the service will stop working on April 30, the company said in a statement.

The network originally intended to invest more than $ 1 billion in the platform over the next four years.

But at any one time, it is reported that there were less than 10,000 people using the service since its launch.

“CNN will be the strongest as part of WBD’s streaming strategy, which sees news as an important part of a compelling wider offering, along with sports, entertainment and documentary content,” said Chris Licht, world chairman and CEO. CNN in a statement. “That’s why we decided to shut down CNN +.”

CNN’s digital streaming strategy manager Andrew Morse will step down when the service ends, the company said.

Instead, the business will focus on its core divisions, such as news and building CNN Digital, the company’s online entity.

This comes when the market was shaken by Netflix’s announcement that it had lost 200,000 subscribers in the first three months of 2022, the first time it has seen such a decline in more than a decade.

The streaming giant is currently the worst performing stock in the S&P index, wiping out more than $ 50 billion from the company’s market value.

One of America’s most prominent investors, Bill Ackman, sold his $ 1.1 billion investment in Netflix on Wednesday, just three months after his hedge fund bought the stock.

It lost more than $ 400 million in sales.

Netflix has blamed part of the decline in subscribers on family members sharing the same account, something the company has recently begun fighting.

But analysts say the battle between streaming titans – which now include Apple, Amazon, HBO, Hulu and Disney – is another cause for a blow to the number of its subscribers.

Concerns have been growing for some time that after more than a decade of rapid growth, Netflix will eventually begin to see a decline in subscribers as its competitors boost supply.