Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is pulling its live news feed CNN Max from the HBO Max app in November as the cable news channel prepares to launch its own subscription streaming service.
In a note sent to customers on Friday, WBD said the CNN Max feed will disappear from the HBO Max app on November 17, though documentaries from CNN will continue to be offered under the “CNN Originals” brand. The same documentaries are also available on Discovery Plus.
“CNN has benefitted tremendously from its two years of offering a live 24/7 feed of news to HBO Max customers,” Alex MacCallum, the Executive Vice President of Digital Products at CNN, said in a statement. “We learned from HBO Max’s large base of subscribers what people want and enjoy the most from CNN, and with the launch of our own new streaming subscription offering coming later this fall, we look forward to building off that and growing our audience with this unique, new offering.”
CNN Max launched in 2023 as a way to bring live CNN programming to streamers who otherwise lacked a traditional pay television service.
Officially, CNN Max was a “beta” product during its run on HBO Max — which previously operated as Max — and included programming from CNN International along with a handful of shows developed exclusively for the streaming feed.
Earlier this year, WBD said it would stop distributing CNN Max in its lower-priced, ad-supported version of Max, relegating the live news feed to the more-expensive premium version of the app.
Details about the forthcoming streaming version of CNN have been sparse, though executives confirm it will launch sometime within the next few weeks. The decision to pull CNN Max from the HBO Max app comes ahead of a planned separation of WBD’s streaming business — including HBO Max — from its cable networks like CNN. In addition to live news, sports programming from TNT Sports is expected to disappear from the HBO Max app sometime next year.
CNN has leaned into digital subscriptions as a way to generate revenue beyond its cable and satellite advertising and distribution fees, which have declined due to accelerated churn in the traditional cable and satellite TV business over the past few years.
Last year, CNN erected a paywall on its website and apps, charging around $4 per month for unlimited access to news and certain premium online features.
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