Concha: CNN+ is 'the biggest failure any media company has ever experienced’
Media expert Joe Concha discusses CNN’s failed streaming platform set to shut down by the end of April.
With the failure of CNN+, Fox News contributor Joe Concha said its lifespan is comparable to the infamously-short White House career of former Trump adviser Anthony Scaramucci.
CNN+ originally launched at the end of March, while incoming CNN CEO Christopher Licht announced it will just as quickly close up shop on April 30.
Concha told Fox News the streaming service has been the "biggest failure any media company has ever experienced," pointing to its initial $300 million price tag and floundering subscriber base.
"Somehow this is simultaneously shocking yet not surprising, right? Because it's been rumored for weeks and CNN+ was doing horribly," he said. "And for this ship to sink that fast shows you how horrible and mismanaged this idea was from the very beginning."
SCARAMUCCI BLASTS TRUMP; COVID RHETORIC: HE ‘HAS A SCREW LOOSE’
CNN (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
Concha added the platform was undoubtedly built on the "hubris" of people like former CNN chief Jeffrey Zucker, presuming that people would pay for additional content from a news network with historically low ratings.
He reported that CNN's primetime lineup is often beaten by Hallmark, HGTV, TLC, INSP, and the History Channel. Concha noted that the History Channel airs a lot of educational programming on World War II.
Pointing to the war in Ukraine, Concha riffed that more people are watching coverage of a war "that happened 80 years ago" than they are of CNN's coverage of a war going on today.
Appearing to reference both Scaramucci and former "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace, Concha said it is in some ways sad to see such an abrupt end.
STEVE SCULLY SUSPENSION: C-SPAN ANCHOR ASKED SCARAMUCCI ‘SHOULD I RESPOND TO TRUMP?’
Anthony Scaramucci (REUTERS/Richard Brian)
"I would imagine that is especially painful for those who may have left a great on-air job for this streaming endeavor – and then the endeavor is over in the span of almost three Scaramuccis," he said.
"I mean, that's got to be tough."
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Scaramucci, founder of SkyBridge Capital, famously went from a fervent Trump supporter who wrote a glowing tome called "The Blue-Collar President" to one of his harshest and most routine critics on television following his short stint as White House communications director in July 2017.
The term "one Scaramucci" has become popularized political slang for an 11-day period.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox