Media
CNN+ fails, shut down after only one month
According to multiple reports, the CNN+ streaming service, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is shutting down just one month after its launch. CNN’s incoming CEO Chris Licht made the decision to terminate the streaming service.
Executive Vice President Andrew Morse, who oversees CNN+, will leave CNN following a transition period. According to sources, Licht told staffers that CNN+ had “an incredibly successful launch,” and that “it is not your fault that you had the rug pulled out from underneath you,” CNN’s article on the closure stated. Licht also described the events as a “uniquely sh**ty situation.”
“In a complex streaming market, consumers want simplicity and an all-in service which provides a better experience and more value than stand-alone offerings, and, for the company, a more sustainable business model to drive our future investments in great journalism and storytelling,” Discovery streaming head J. B. Perrette said in a statement on Thursday.
National Review reports:
The closure comes after multiple reports suggested the launch did not fulfill the network’s expectations. Two weeks after the launch, fewer than 10,000 people were using CNN+, people familiar with the matter told CNBClast week. The streaming service costs $5.99 a month or $59.99 per year.
CNN executives assisted by the McKinsey consulting firm expected the service to draw 2 million subscribers in its first year, and another 15–18 million subscribers after four years, Axioms reported. CNN had already invested $300 million in CNN+ and was planning to invest around $1 billion over four years, according to Axios.
President Joe Biden has an impressive 22.2 million followers on Twitter; but apparently half of them are bots. According to an audit tool from software company SparkToro, “49.3 percent of account’s following the official @POTUS Twitter account are ‘fake followers” reports Newsweek.
SparkToro defines “fake” as “accounts that are unreachable and will not see the account’s tweets (either because they’re spam, bots, propaganda, etc. or because they’re no longer active on Twitter.”
Analysis was conducted based on factors such as location issues, default profile images and new users. The information is of particular importance as Elon Musk has expressed his concern at the overwhelming number of fake accounts on the giant platform. Specifically, he claimed 20 percent of Twitter accounts were “fake/spam accounts” and that the figure is “4 times what Twitter claims” or even higher.
“Musk said early on Tuesday that his $44-billion deal to purchase the social media company could not go ahead until issues with fake accounts were resolved and appeared to criticize Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal” adds Newsweek.
The accusation put the acquisition in jeopardy, with the two men exchanging a series of tweets about the fake accounts issue on Monday.
The back-and-forth comes after Musk tweeted Friday that the deal to buy Twitter was placed on hold pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts represent less than 5% of users.
“My offer was based on Twitter’s SEC filings being accurate,” Musk wrote. “Yesterday, Twitter’s CEO publicly refused to show proof of <5%. This deal cannot move forward until he does.”
“We suspend over half a million spam accounts every day, usually before any of you even see them on Twitter. We also lock millions of accounts each week that we suspect may be spam, if they can’t pass human verification challenges (captchas, phone verification, etc),” Agrawal wrote.
SparkToro’s tool also found that of Musk’s 93.3 million followers, 70.2 percent of those accounts are fake.
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