You know things are broken on the corporate side of things when even the execution gets moved up. CNN+ will cease streaming on April 28, according to an email sent do subscribers. That’s two days sooner than was previously announced.
This, of course, is the definition of a moot point. Whether CNN+ dies on April 28 or April 30 doesn’t matter at all — it’ll be just as dead. But it just goes to show the dysfunction behind the scenes following the merger of WarnerMedia, which owned CNN, with Discovery, and the executive shake-up that followed.
The reason for the earlier date likely has to do with refunds. Monthly subscriptions were about to renew, and it looks like someone figured out that the renewal date actually was going to land before the service shut down. (I managed to sign up on March 28, a day before the official launch. My renewal date was to be April 28.)
For its part, CNN+ says that it’s refunding the full subscription fee. Those who signed up for the monthly plan did so at a 50% discount, and that early-bird window wasn’t set to close until April 28. So a lot of folks (or as many as who actually signed up, anyway) can expect a cool $3 back in their wallets. In a bit of kismet, CNN notes that it may take as long as the streaming service existed for you to actually receive the refund — a month. (That’s actually standard for this sort of transaction, but it’s still sort of ironic.)
Here’s the full statement from CNN+:
CNN+ streaming will come to an end on April 28, 2022. If you purchased your subscription directly from us, we will be providing a full refund for your subscription fee back to your original CNN+ payment method by May 28, 2022. If you purchased your subscription via a third party, such as Apple, Google, Roku, or Amazon, that third party will process a full refund of your subscription fee in accordance with their respective refund policies and timelines. You can confirm the details of those refunds directly with the applicable third-party app store provider.
Try not to spend all $3 of that refund at once. pic.twitter.com/XMq48iWTPo
— Phil (@philnickinson) April 27, 2022
CNN+ notes in a FAQ that your CNN account will still be active after April 28. But all of the content — including what’s already premiered — will simply cease to exist.
Like it never happened.
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