Warner Bros to launch CNN Max news streaming service in US

By Dawn Chmielewski and Helen Coster

(Reuters) -Warner Bros Discovery said on Thursday it was adding a new offering to its Max streaming platform, a round-the-clock news service called CNN Max, in the United States on Sept. 27.

CNN Max will leverage the news network's global reporting resources, and will also offer new original programs, such as "CNN Newsroom with Jim Acosta, Rahel Solomon, Amara Walker and Fredricka Whitfield," Warner Bros Discovery said in a statement. It will function like a channel within the Max streaming platform.

CNN Max will seek to capitalize on the immediacy of breaking news and analysis, differentiating CNN Max from the short-lived CNN+ streaming service, which launched in March 2022 and featured lifestyle programs.

Axios first reported the plans for CNN Max.

CNN's parent, Warner Bros Discovery, has been working to increase how much time subscribers spend on its Max streaming service, augmenting its HBO scripted series with Discovery's reality shows to keep viewers watching.

Breaking news and analysis would further expand Max's programming, even as it allows CNN to reach a younger streaming audience.

CNN's ratings have been sagging, even as the company attempts to attract more Republican viewers. Its profit fell beneath $1 billion in 2022 and is expected to be modestly higher this year than last, at $938.6 million, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Those estimates are for the CNN networks that operate in the United States, including CNN en Español and CNN International.

During June, CNN's audience lagged behind Fox News and MSNBC in prime time and across the total day, according to data from Nielsen.

The CNN Originals hub that is already part of the Max service will be renamed CNN Max, and U.S. subscribers will have access to live news as well as to existing original series such as "Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown" and "Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy."

(Reporting by Yuvraj Malik in Bengaluru, Dawn Chmielewski in Los Angeles and Helen Coster in New York; Editing by Anil D'Silva, Chizu Nomiyama, Jonathan Oatis and Will Dunham)