CNN To Go From Fee To Free For Video

In an effort to attract more online eyeballs, CNN.com today will unveil an initiative to make its video content available at no charge starting June 20. Access to CNN.com's broadband video--which is woven throughout the site on section fronts, special reports, and story pages--has run $4.95 a month since CNN initiated its subscription service in March 2002.

The change reflects the background of CNN President Jonathan Klein--who came to the Turner Broadcasting unit from the FeedRoom, a company he founded that builds broadband Web sites and streams online content--although the Web project is being supervised by Susan Grant, executive vice president of CNN News Services.

"The free video will draw from CNN's extensive news-gathering resources, so our users can get quick and accurate information the way they want to experience it," Grant said.

As part of the June 20 launch, the CNN.com home page will spotlight ad-supported video news coverage as part of a broader restyling of the site. "The redesign will be evolutionary, not revolutionary," said Grant, adding that users who are familiar with the existing site should be comfortable with the new layout.

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Visitors will be able to view various on-demand videos across a variety of topics, including politics, world news, business, sports, entertainment, science, and technology. A specially designed video player--attached to a 728 by 90 banner--will allow users to search and organize videos. CNN also plans to offer marketers the opportunity to run ads up to 30 seconds long.

As part of the free offering, CNN.com staff will also produce two-minute newscasts every hour called "Now in the News," delivering timely updates of breaking news coverage.

Analyst Mike McGuire, research director with Gartner G2, attributed the decline of paid online content to intense competition for traffic and high consumer demand. "It's clearly a recognition of the way things are going for publishers and content providers," said McGuire. "Paid services are getting harder and harder to justify, especially when the advertising market is so strong."

But CNN hasn't completely separated itself from the paid subscription model. In the fall, CNN.com will offer a subscription-based service, which will deliver multiple live video streams, access to CNN's video archives, and user-customized options. A price for the service has not yet been set.

CNN.com claims to rank as the leading online news and information site, attracting an average of 23 million unique users each month.

While CNN averaged more unique visitors over the past 12 months than any other online news source, in April, CNN drew a unique audience of 20,783--behind MSNBC and Yahoo! News, each of which drew about 23,000 unique visitors--according to Nielsen//NetRatings. CNN does not consider Yahoo! News or AOL News--which ranked fourth in April according to comScore--"competitors since they are aggregators, while CNN publishes only its own content," according to a CNN spokeswoman.

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