CNN All Access: The New Streaming Service and Past Challenges

Launch and Details of CNN All Access Service

The New "All Access" Service: CNN is now offering its new streaming service, "All Access," to provide viewers with a comprehensive and integrated experience of its premium content. Launched on October 28 by Warner Bros. Discovery, this service offers a flexible subscription plan at $7 per month or $70 annually. For early subscribers who sign up before January 5, 2026, the annual subscription is available at a special promotional price of $42 for a limited time, making CNN content more appealing.

Benefits of "All Access": "All Access" is the primary and comprehensive destination for all CNN content, offering viewers live and on-demand streaming of American and international news programs. Additionally, the service provides a vast library of original and exclusive CNN content, with unlimited access to all CNN.com articles, either via the website or through the dedicated CNN app.

Exclusive All Access Content and Programs

"All Access" Content at Launch: The "All Access" service includes live news broadcasting for American and global coverage, along with a selection of original CNN programs and films. Notable offerings include: "Anderson Cooper's All There Is Live," "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown," "Kobe: The Making of a Legend," "The Windsors: Inside the Royal Dynasty," and "United States of Scandal with Jake Tapper."

Dedicated FAST Channels: Subscribers benefit from two dedicated FAST (Free Ad-Supported Streaming TV) channels offering news summaries, in-depth analyses, exclusive interviews, and a variety of films.

CNN's Digital Strategy and Lessons from the Past

CNN Max Departs HBO Max Platform: In a related context, CNN's live news stream, known as CNN Max, is scheduled to depart the HBO Max platform next month. Alex MacCallum, EVP of Digital Products and Services for CNN Worldwide, stated that the launch of this new service reaffirms CNN's commitment to delivering its best content to audiences across all available platforms, including multiple live streaming channels, innovative visual journalism, and a comprehensive collection of articles on CNN.com and the mobile app.

Expansion of the Core Plan and the CNN Plus Experiment: This new subscription is an expansion of the existing core plan that provides subscribers with unlimited access to CNN articles, its mobile app, and their exclusive content. This strategic move follows a previous experiment by the network in March 2022, when it launched "CNN Plus." That was a similar subscription plan offering access to live news, original series, and on-demand programs, but it faced challenges that led to its shutdown just one month after its launch.

Reasons for CNN Plus's Failure: The failure of CNN Plus can be attributed to several key factors: primarily, low subscriber numbers, with only about 150,000 paid subscribers after just two weeks, which was significantly less than initial projections (millions of subscribers) (The New York Times, 2022). The service was also impacted by the merger between WarnerMedia and Discovery, as the new leadership under David Zaslav had a different strategic vision for streaming services. Additionally, the lack of live streaming for the main CNN channel within CNN Plus was a significant weakness, as viewers expected 24/7 access to breaking news (Productside). The launch of CNN Plus also required massive investments, estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, in content development and hiring prominent talent (Forbes).