"Netflix, which is already the nation's leading streamer, had struck a deal to acquire the movie studios, archives, intellectual property and streaming services of CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. But Netflix did not want to become Newsflix. CNN and its sister cable channels were to be spun off in a separate company. Inside CNN, that seemed like good news."
""It will enable us to continue to roll out our strategy to secure a great future for CNN by successfully navigating our digital transition," Mark Thompson, the chairman and CEO of CNN Worldwide, wrote in a memo to staff shortly after Warner said it would accept the Netflix offer. Staffers recalled the mass layoffs caused when new corporate owners at Warner canceled the network's streaming service CNN+ in April 2022, just a month after it launched. They say they had been heartened to think their new efforts might actually get off the ground."
"But in the new plan, as part of a corporate family of fading cable channels loaded with debt from the merger that created Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN's fate would remain entirely up for grabs. And President Trump, who has long called networks such as CNN fake news and long sought to taunt or toss out CNN's reporters, now wants a deciding role in the network's future."
Netflix struck a deal to acquire the movie studios, archives, intellectual property and streaming services of Warner Bros. Discovery while planning to spin CNN and its sister cable channels into a separate company. CNN staff initially felt relieved because the streamer did not plan to own the news network. Past abrupt actions, including cancellation of CNN+ and mass layoffs, left staff wary of new ownership. The spun-off CNN would join a family of fading, debt-loaded cable channels created by the Warner merger, leaving the network's future uncertain. President Trump publicly criticized CNN and demanded the network be sold, seeking influence over its fate.
Read at www.npr.org
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]