Sources: WarnerMedia is weighing two new streaming services, with a subscription service based on CNN content in 2021 and a free entertainment service for 2022
With Ads Mitchell Clark / The Verge : Hope you weren't planning to watch Wonder Woman 1984 with an HBO Max free trial Tweets: Jessica Toonkel / @jtoonkel : WarnerMedia is discussing a couple more video streaming services—one around CNN, and one that could be free https://thein.fo/... via @theinformation Daniel Roberts / @readdanwrite : In The Future, every single channel must have its own streaming service. and you will pay. and end up spending more than you ever spent on cable. but you'll be HAPPIER, damn it. https://go.theinformation.com/ ... Joshua Benton / @jbenton : WarnerMedia is considering a CNN streaming service To avoid cannibalization, it wouldn't include the linear TV channel — think documentaries and stuff that ran on CNN International https://thein.fo/... Juan Carlos Pedreira / @juancpedreira : The end of traditional pay TV era. 👇 WarnerMedia considering two new subscription offering based on content from CNN and another free service carrying programming from its entertainment cable channels TBS, TNT and Warner Bros. film libraries https://www.theinformation.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... @theinformation : As part of CEO Jason Kilar's strategic push into streaming, WarnerMedia is considering launching two new streaming services: (1) paid CNN subscription (2) free ad-supported content from TBS, TNT, Warner Bros. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Nick Wingfield / @nickwingfield : It's a truism that when the Rapture comes, media executives will be judged on the basis of how many streaming services they have launched. https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Peter Kafka / @pkafka : All of the big cable properties have the same question: How do you bring your popular TV network to streaming w/out cannibalizing your popular TV network? In most cases it's the same answer: You don't - you bring something else to streaming, for that network's super-fans. Peter Kafka / @pkafka : This wouldn't be a streaming version of CNN, per Jessica, but a CNN branded collection of.... things that aren't on CNN. https://twitter.com/... Mark Di Stefano / @markdistef : WarnerMedia discussing setting up a new CNN streaming service. CNN+? CNNMax? .... story by @jtoonkel https://www.theinformation.com/ ... Julia Alexander / @loudmouthjulia : Pro: CNN has the youngest audience across cable news, digital sites 📈, opportunity to have CNN exist outside declining pay-TV. Cons: More streamers incorporating news into other platforms for free, will people pay when they catch clips on Twitter? https://www.theinformation.com/ ... @winter : I'm glad the studios are streaming movies safely to audiences. We made a very difficult decision back in March to stream @BillandTed3 and we're grateful the studio agreed. We suspected it could be two years to wait if we held out for theatrical and that has proven to be the case. https://twitter.com/... Jake Williams / @malwarejake : So Warner Brothers just murdered most of what's left of the movie theater business. https://twitter.com/... Rene Ritchie / @reneritchie : Except internationally because, unlike Apple and Disney, Warners wasn't prepared to launch an international service and none of the resellers they hoped to milk for extra revenue at the expense of consumer convenience with pay up for first-run. So, I'll be watching Disney. 😞 https://twitter.com/... Scott Austin / @scottmaustin : Wow @hbomax is upping the ante vs. Disney+/Netflix. Every 2021 Warner Bros movie will debut on HBO Max at the same time as theaters ("Matrix 4," “Dune,” Godzilla vs. Kong," etc.) Reminder that Disney+ charged $30 to watch Mulan for the first month. https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... Shahmir Sanni / @shahmiruk : In other news, my fellow Dune fans, we will be able to stream Dune the moment it comes out in theatres. I will be watching it in the theatre if I can...but today is a good day! https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/ ... George Mnguni / @okay_wasabi : Lmao Dawg I Cannot Believe This Is Happening. Cinema Is About To Strike. Piracy Is About To Hot Next Year Yho. https://twitter.com/... Julia Alexander / @loudmouthjulia : Absolutely massive news out of WarnerMedia and Warner Bros. today. https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
This report lands mid-arc for WarnerMedia: CEO Jason Kilar had spent 2019 wrestling with integrating Time Warner's three silos toward a 70M-subscriber streaming goal, and now the portfolio is being re-split — a paid CNN-branded subscription service targeted for 2021, plus a free ad-supported entertainment service for 2022 drawing on TBS, TNT, and Warner Bros. film libraries. The free-tier playbook has a clear precedent: NBCUniversal's ad-supported service, free for pay-TV subscribers with a reported ~$12/month price for everyone else.
It also feeds the fragmentation wave The Verge documented that same month, when major studios' streaming exclusivity plays began forcing households to pay for four or five separate services. Five years on, that fragmentation resolved into consolidation: Netflix agreed to acquire WBD's studios and streaming business for $82.7B ahead of the company splitting in two.
First-order effects
- CNN gains a direct-to-consumer subscription product beyond the linear channel, while TBS, TNT, and Warner Bros. library programming get a second, ad-funded home alongside HBO Max.
- NBCUniversal's free-for-pay-TV ad model becomes the immediate benchmark: WarnerMedia's free service must match it on price and ad load to compete for the same casual viewers.
Second-order effects
- Rival network owners face pressure to carve more channels into standalone paid or free tiers, deepening the exclusivity fragmentation already pushing viewers toward four or five subscriptions.
- Advertisers gain a new pool of AVOD inventory from the Warner Bros., TBS, and TNT catalogs, competing directly with NBCUniversal's ad-supported offering for brand video budgets.
Third-order effects
- If every cable channel becomes its own service, aggregate household spend drifts toward or past the cable bundle it replaced — classic bundle cannibalization — until the fragmentation forces consolidation.
- That consolidation endpoint is not hypothetical in this arc: the same streaming assets WarnerMedia was multiplying in 2020 were ultimately sold to Netflix in an $82.7B deal once WBD split its studios from its networks.
The trend: Cable networks are being re-cut into standalone paid and free ad-supported streamers — a fragmentation phase that structurally ends in consolidation.