Broken News: No One Is Watching CNN’s New Streaming Service CNN+

CNN+ launched to much fanfare on March 29th. The subscription news streaming service promised live news coverage as well as a catalog of on-demand programming including past CNN shows like Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown and Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy. The streamer also managed to lure high profile journalists including Kasie Hunt from NBC News and Fox News’s Chris Wallace, as well as relying on CNN mainstays like Wolf Blitzer to headline the daily news shows that would be broadcast exclusively on the platform. But according to a new report, no one is watching.

We’re only two weeks into the new service, but today CNBC’s Alex Sherman reports: “Fewer than 10,000 people are using CNN+ on a daily basis,” in contrast to CNN’s cable format, which pulls in 773,000 viewers a day. Making the CNN+ user experience even more limiting, you can’t actually stream live CNN content on the platform, per the site’s FAQ, “It does not simulcast CNN’s existing channels; you’ll still need a pay TV subscription to see those.” In short, we’re talking about a subscription service that’s what I like to call CNNINO (CNN In Name Only, let’s pronounce it “chinino”), in that it doesn’t even offer its flagship brand of Anderson Cooper, so what’s the point?

CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, has not yet revealed how many subscribers the channel has, as of now. That said, if you’re looking to determine this service’s worthiness for your personal needs, you can subscribe to CNN+ for $5.99 a month or $59.99 annually. One of the more limiting aspects of CNN+ is that it’s not accessible on every streaming device yet. CNN+ only just became available to Roku users yesterday (Monday, April 11), but it’s also available to watch using your web browser, the CNN mobile app, or the CNN app on Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV streaming devices. It has yet to become available on Android TV and Google TV.

So will CNN+ go the way of Quibi and falter out after a splashy launch? Vulture’s Josef Adalian recently wrote in his Buffering newsletter/column that the service “has Quibi vibes … Lots of money has been spent, big stars are onboard, but it’s hard to figure out just what the service is supposed to be and why a large number of people will want to pay for it.” We’ll soon now how short (or long) of a leash new Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav will be giving the service.