CNN Plans Launch Of New Streaming Service This Fall
CNN is planning to launch roll out a subscription streaming service this fall, its latest attempt to gain a foothold in the market.
A CNN spokesperson confirmed plans for the service, which would be a mix of live programming and on-demand content.
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The details of the new service will be unveiled on Wednesday as Warner Bros. Discovery makes its upfront presentation to advertisers.
The network launched a much-heralded service, CNN+, in 2022, in which the network hired top name talent to create alternate programming, while offering subscribers an array of documentaries and original series from its library. But the network was a bust and was folded after just a month.
CNN Worldwide CEO Mark Thompson announced plans for the streaming service in January. He wrote to employees that they 'plan to develop a new way for digital subscribers at home and abroad to stream news programming from us on any device they choose. It's early days but we've already established that there's immense demand for it not just in America but across much of the world.'
CNN already has a streaming presence on Max, launched after the failure of CNN+, that mirrors a significant share of linear content. But in his memo in January, Thompson wrote that they will 'continue to have a strong presence on Max, but we also believe it is not a complete answer to the future of the great linear CNN experience.'
CNN also has started a paywall for CNN.com following an upgrade. According to The New York Times, which first reported on the launch plans, the streaming service would be tied to the subscription product. Existing linear cable subscribers also will have access. One of the difficulties for news networks in offering streaming options are agreements with traditional TV distributors, even as cable and satellite subscriptions are on the decline.
Fox News launched a subscription offering, Fox Nation, in 2018, and it offers a mix of original content, including entertainment programming, along with on-demand streams of some of its linear programming. MSNBC has a streaming presence on Peacock, the NBCU subscription service, and it is unclear what kind of offering it will have following its separation from parent Comcast later this year.
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CNN
37 minutes ago
- CNN
‘Life is full of unexpected surprises': People trying to call Iran meet mysterious voice message
People trying to call friends and loved ones inside Iran have instead been met with strange, pre-recorded voice messages, which some experts believe may be part of the regime's wider internet blackout. In a recording of a telephone call heard by CNN, a person outside of Iran hoping to hear their friend's voice on the other line, was instead met with a robotic voice. 'Hello, and thank you for taking the time to listen,' the voice says. 'Life is full of unexpected surprises,' it continues, 'and these surprises can sometimes bring joy while, at other times, they challenge us. 'The key is to discover the strength within us to overcome these challenges.' The unsettling message, which lasts nearly 90 seconds, then goes on to recommend the listener close their eyes and imagine themself in a place that brings them 'peace and happiness.' While different variations have been reported, this version appears to have been the one most commonly heard by people outside Iran placing calls to mobile phones inside the country on Wednesday and Thursday. No similar message was reported when calling landlines. The messages were widely heard after Iran imposed nationwide temporary restrictions on internet access on Wednesday, citing security concerns. This meant WhatsApp was down, so people abroad began calling their friends and family in Iran directly, rather than via the app. The message is reportedly not heard if the call is made through an app. The initial assumption for many Iranians was that the messages were the result of an Israeli cyberattack. Others see the Iranian authorities as being behind them. Alp Toker, the founder and director of NetBlocks, a non-governmental organization that monitors internet governance, believes the messages are an attempt by the Iranian government to limit telecommunications, as part of the wider internet censorship measures. 'The point is, when the internet is cut, the phones need to go somewhere, and that will go to the fallback message on the device,' he told CNN. Toker added it was a phenomenon NetBlocks had seen in different places around the world when internet access was cut. 'Sometimes it will have an advert for summer vacations and sometimes it will have some other nonsense,' he said. According to Toker, the messages are text-to-speech generated. He believes they appear to have been set up rapidly. 'It's in the format of a normal gateway answering message of the type you might get from a national gateway when a phone doesn't answer,' he said. 'It seems that they've gone with the settings, and there's a little box where you can put in the settings and they've put something in there, pre-AI generated.' Meanwhile, a UK-based telecommunications expert who listened to a recording of the most commonly heard message told CNN that 'the call appears to be hijacked after the second ring, which is highly unusual and deeply concerning. This suggests interference at the network level – well before a proper connection is established.' The expert asked not to be named for safety reasons. Neither Israel nor Iran has made a public statement on the recorded phone messages. Access to international internet services had been partially restored in parts of Iran on Saturday 'after approximately 62 hours of severe disruption,' NetBlocks said. 'While some regions have seen improvements, overall connectivity remains below ordinary levels, continuing to hinder people's ability to communicate freely and access independent information,' it added. The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that international internet services would resume by 8 p.m. local time Saturday, citing the communications minister. However, Tasnim later reported that this was not the case, citing the same minister. According to the communications ministry, Iranians abroad can now contact their families inside Iran through domestic messaging apps. The Iranian government has frequently restricted internet access in the country. During nationwide protests in 2022, authorities implemented multiple internet shutdowns in an effort to stifle dissent.
CNN
38 minutes ago
- CNN
‘Life is full of unexpected surprises': People trying to call Iran meet mysterious voice message
People trying to call friends and loved ones inside Iran have instead been met with strange, pre-recorded voice messages, which some experts believe may be part of the regime's wider internet blackout. In a recording of a telephone call heard by CNN, a person outside of Iran hoping to hear their friend's voice on the other line, was instead met with a robotic voice. 'Hello, and thank you for taking the time to listen,' the voice says. 'Life is full of unexpected surprises,' it continues, 'and these surprises can sometimes bring joy while, at other times, they challenge us. 'The key is to discover the strength within us to overcome these challenges.' The unsettling message, which lasts nearly 90 seconds, then goes on to recommend the listener close their eyes and imagine themself in a place that brings them 'peace and happiness.' While different variations have been reported, this version appears to have been the one most commonly heard by people outside Iran placing calls to mobile phones inside the country on Wednesday and Thursday. No similar message was reported when calling landlines. The messages were widely heard after Iran imposed nationwide temporary restrictions on internet access on Wednesday, citing security concerns. This meant WhatsApp was down, so people abroad began calling their friends and family in Iran directly, rather than via the app. The message is reportedly not heard if the call is made through an app. The initial assumption for many Iranians was that the messages were the result of an Israeli cyberattack. Others see the Iranian authorities as being behind them. Alp Toker, the founder and director of NetBlocks, a non-governmental organization that monitors internet governance, believes the messages are an attempt by the Iranian government to limit telecommunications, as part of the wider internet censorship measures. 'The point is, when the internet is cut, the phones need to go somewhere, and that will go to the fallback message on the device,' he told CNN. Toker added it was a phenomenon NetBlocks had seen in different places around the world when internet access was cut. 'Sometimes it will have an advert for summer vacations and sometimes it will have some other nonsense,' he said. According to Toker, the messages are text-to-speech generated. He believes they appear to have been set up rapidly. 'It's in the format of a normal gateway answering message of the type you might get from a national gateway when a phone doesn't answer,' he said. 'It seems that they've gone with the settings, and there's a little box where you can put in the settings and they've put something in there, pre-AI generated.' Meanwhile, a UK-based telecommunications expert who listened to a recording of the most commonly heard message told CNN that 'the call appears to be hijacked after the second ring, which is highly unusual and deeply concerning. This suggests interference at the network level – well before a proper connection is established.' The expert asked not to be named for safety reasons. Neither Israel nor Iran has made a public statement on the recorded phone messages. Access to international internet services had been partially restored in parts of Iran on Saturday 'after approximately 62 hours of severe disruption,' NetBlocks said. 'While some regions have seen improvements, overall connectivity remains below ordinary levels, continuing to hinder people's ability to communicate freely and access independent information,' it added. The semi-official Tasnim news agency reported that international internet services would resume by 8 p.m. local time Saturday, citing the communications minister. However, Tasnim later reported that this was not the case, citing the same minister. According to the communications ministry, Iranians abroad can now contact their families inside Iran through domestic messaging apps. The Iranian government has frequently restricted internet access in the country. During nationwide protests in 2022, authorities implemented multiple internet shutdowns in an effort to stifle dissent.
The Hill
an hour ago
- The Hill
Does Trump see an off-ramp for Iran's leaders and a historic tipping point?
President Trump has come to possibly one of the most historic tipping points of our time — a tipping point he may have accelerated. A tipping point which, if things continue in this direction, might recalibrate the Middle East for the better for decades to come. The question then becomes: How best to increase the positive momentum? One of the main reasons I believe Trump has been a successful and transformative president is because he brought decades of real-world business experience into the Oval Office for the first time in decades. Love them or not, Joe Biden was a 50-plus-years career politician; Barack Obama was a little-experienced local Chicago politician; George W. Bush was a 'nepo' politician who rode the coattails of his father; Bill Clinton was an academic and career politician; George H.W. Bush was a courageous war hero who then fell into a career of politics and diplomacy; Ronald Reagan was an actor and two-term governor of California; and so on and so on. All these presidents were still creatures of politics and beholden to their particular party. Aside from being the first president in our lifetimes to bring decades of real-world business experience into the White House, Trump gleefully and very publicly cut the special interests' umbilical cords which connected so many presidents to the entrenched elites in D.C. Hence the creation of the 'Never Trump' movement and now a decade of 'Trump Derangement Syndrome.' Trump does believe in 'America First.' To make that expression a reality, he is willing to break with the entrenched elites, outrage the legacy media, ignore academics who never worked in the real world, defy the 'globalist' leaders of other nations and, sometimes, challenge the thinking and perceptions of the MAGA movement. We are witnessing all those Trump tactics with regard to the latest Israel-Iran conflict. In the business world, you are often faced with 'buy,' 'sell' or 'sit this one out' opportunities. While building his global business empire, Trump has engaged in such negotiations thousands of times. More often than not, he acted upon instincts honed by decades of success. Many MAGA supporters — and quite possibly Trump himself — initially viewed the current Israel-Iran war as a 'sit this one out' situation. But Israel's attack on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities may have created an unplanned tipping point for Trump towards much greater peace and stability in the region, while strengthening the national security of the U.S. Going back to before to his first presidential campaign in 2015, Trump had long condemned the Iraq war, the tragic loss of life and the neocons and hawks who incessantly called for that invasion. We saw that same conviction from Trump when it came to the war in Ukraine. He wanted peace and was desperate to stop the useless slaughter of hundreds of thousands of human beings. During his decades of being a master business negotiator, Trump also knew that it was wise — and was often the key tactic — to offer the CEO and upper management of the company he was dealing with a face-saving off ramp. Trump may now sense that the leadership of Iran is desperate for such an off ramp. There is no doubt that Trump believes Iran to be a rogue state directly responsible for the killing and maiming of thousands of American soldiers; of controlling the most ruthless and dangerous terrorist organizations in the world; of openly calling for the annihilation of America; and which is directly destabilizing the Middle East, while causing the deaths and suffering of literally millions of people in the region. But that is the truth of the present and the past. What if one were presented with the rarest of opportunities — to affect the truth of the future? What if, via the actions of others, certain policies and happenstance, you were gifted a window to rid the world of a truly evil entity capable of killing millions? But it was a window quickly and maybe permanently slamming shut. No president in our lifetimes has pushed to keep Americans out of harm's way or for global peace more than Trump. He owes no one an apology nor an explanation. Trump does want peace — but knows peace and freedom come at a cost. In his first term, he saw the window to eliminate ISIS and jumped through it to crush the vilest terrorist organization the world has ever known. With regard to Iran, Trump ordered the elimination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, a man directly responsible for the killing and maiming of countless American troops. Businessman Trump has operated with the 'carrot and stick' method his entire adult life. Usually while flying by the seat of his pants. Trump created the 'America First' movement. Now, his instincts may be telling him he has a fleeting sliver of time to create an 'Iran First' movement for the long-suffering people of that nation — a people yearning to live in peace, who hate those who have turned their nation into a murderous theocracy. Iranians are poised to act, but they need a tipping point to give them cover not to be slaughtered in the streets if they rise as one to reclaim their country. Trump may be about to give them that tipping point. Douglas MacKinnon is a former White House and Pentagon official.
