At Variety this morning, I read the news that CNN has finally announced its new digital product, delivering the CNN Brand to digital platforms.
This is the open of the article:
The Warner Bros. Discovery-backed news outlet said it would launch a new “All Access” subscription product for $6.99 per month, or $69.99 per year, starting October 28. The company billed the new service as the best way to interact with a burgeoning suite of new content built for audiences using mobile devices or connected TVs. Subscribers who sign up by January 5, 2026 can get the annual plan for a special introductory price of $41.99 for the first year.
That’s underwhelming. It really sounds like there isn’t much there there. Surely, if there was an exciting new proposition, Variety would have led with that…?
So, I took a step back. Maybe it’s just a terrible article. How did CNN sell it in its media release?
Here’s the opening two pars:
NEW YORK, NY – October 16, 2025 – CNN announced today that its new All Access subscription tier will launch on October 28, 2025 in the United States, providing audiences with one centralized destination for CNN’s journalism, including live and on-demand video programming to stream.
Available for $6.99 per month or $69.99 annually, the new tier will deliver the most complete way to experience CNN within its existing suite of digital products across web, mobile and connected TV apps. Subscribers who sign up for the annual plan option by January 5, 2026 can subscribe for a special introductory price of $41.99 for the first year.
Oh no.
No talent announcements, no interesting user-interface reveals, no… anything, really.
What are customers getting for their subscription? A few paragraphs in, it gives us this:
Subscribers of the All Access tier will have the ability to stream a selection of CNN’s live US and International programming; the award-winning CNN Originals library of more than 1,000 hours of content as well as the latest CNN Original Series and CNN Films, available the day after their television airing; exclusive new video-on-demand programming and special features from CNN’s award-winning journalists; exclusive live events and all CNN.com articles and subscriber-only content. The full schedule and content offering will be available at launch.
A “selection of CNN’s live US and International programming” sounds like it will include the single linear feed that HBO Max subscribers were getting in the US branded as ‘CNN Max.’ That linear channel was basically the US CNN, but with a few hours of CNN International mixed in to make it just different enough not to upset US cable providers.
They’re really going to have to work harder for people to consider handing over that introductory $41.99 a year, let alone the full-freight $69.99 annual fee.
All of that said, I do want to give the app a test drive and I’d like to see the news network release a product worthy of an annual digital subscription. But, my gosh… I’m really just not seeing anything here.
News Desk
The Chair Company is HBO’s most-watched comedy in five years. Read: THR
Brilliant character actor weirdo Patrick Fischler will join the cast of Paradise season 2 and the upcoming Cape Fear series. Read: Deadline
Apple TV has quietly released a final episode of the unexpectedly… well, not quite cancelled, but… ended… Noel Fielding series The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin. Read: Radio Times
Kate McKinnon has joined the cast of the third season of Disney+ show Percy Jackson and the Olympians. Read: Variety
Pop Culture Jeopardy is moving from Prime Video to Netflix for season 2. Read: Deadline
RIP Ed Williams. He died at age 98 and is best remembered as playing police scientist Ted Olson in Police Squad & The Naked Gun. Read: THR
Trailer Park
The Seduction debuts on HBO Max Nov 14.
Desire is a weapon. Power is everything.
Squid Game: The Challenge returns for season 2 Nov 4.
The Beast in Me debuts on Netflix Nov 13
Author Aggie Wiggs has receded from public life since the death of her young son, unable to write, a ghost of her former self; but she finds an unlikely subject for a new book when the house next door is bought by Nile Jarvis.
LEGO Disney Frozen: Operation Puffins debuts on Disney+ Oct 24.
After the events of “Frozen,” Anna and Elsa want to start fresh in Arendelle, and make the castle feel a bit more comfortable.
Jingle Bell Heist debuts on Netflix Nov 26.
Sophia (Olivia Holt), a sharp-witted retail worker, and Nick (Connor Swindells), a down-on-his-luck repairman, are small-time thieves with their eyes on the same Christmas Eve score: robbing London’s most notorious department store.
Palm Royale returns for season 2 Nov 12 on Apple TV+.
Vanguard debuts (in the US) on Viaplay Nov 18.
The award-winning original series is a fast-paced, cinematic look at the rise of a real-life visionary disruptor who turned bitter family feuds into a media empire that reshaped Nordic TV and influenced global players.
That’s the newsletter for today.
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CNN+ at least launched with a bang a few years ago. The Murdochs: Empire of Influence and Land of the Giants: Titans of Tech were two great shows that I was never able to watch on CNN+ as you couldn't subscribe as an Australian and it was damn near impossible to do it with a VPN or whatever. And I can't subscribe to CNN's paywalled news either as an Australian. I doubt this new expanded CNN offering will be able to be subscribed to by Australians.
I don't care for CNN's linear live feed much apart from during US elections.
CNN, despite being available in Australia on Foxtel as an International feed if I'm not mistaken just does not seem to cater to Australians in other ways. If I hit a CNN paywalled article I just use the archive dot today trick to get around it. And I found The Murdochs: Empire of Influence and Land of the Giants: Titans of Tech on the high seas. Their Decades series is great though but it's hard to watch in Australia legally.
Like you say Dan what is the draw to this new CNN streaming service and All Access offering? If CNN+ was a failure with at least some semblance of a launch with a bang of an offering how is this gonna be anything but an epic fail?