Have you ever wondered: “who’s responsible for the news channel that the world around me gets its news from?”? We’re here to answer that question. According to Devex.com, internationally, CNN is the most widely distributed news channel reaching more than 260 million households abroad. Therefore, many people may understandably raise the question: “who really owns CNN?”.
CNN is owned by a division of Warner Bros. Discovery. It was founded in 1980 by American media proprietors Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel. Upon its launch in 1980, CNN was the first television channel to provide 24-hour news coverage and the first all-news television channel in the United States. Eventually, CNN began airing programs for political and economic debates, as well as interview shows with notable figures in a variety of fields and sports updates. At first, 300 newly hired employees served as investors, and their portion of the investment was $20 million. It gained attention among Americans in the early 1990s through covering the Gulf War and other events.
CNN built a separate facility and a studio for international news in response to the rise in viewers for that content. From its first day until the late 1990s, CNN was a success. Everything was handled well. However, by 1996, rivals like MSNBC and Fox channel had entered the market. It has become an integral part of news coverage not only in the United States but rather across the whole world. The CNN News Net Worth is $6 billion as of January 2021.
Initial Launch
On Sunday, June 1, 1980, the corporation officially launched with 300 employees working out of its Atlanta headquarters and bureaus in Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York City, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Ted Turner provided an introduction during the channel’s first broadcast. CNN became the first all-news television channel in the United States and the first to offer 24-hour television news.
Early Reaction
Initially, the general public was doubtful. Many sceptics questioned if a business providing 24-hour news could be successful and whether there was a market for it. Many questioned whether there was room for such an operation (that was restricted by a tight budget) in a television news environment dominated by CBS, NBC, and ABC news networks, especially one that aimed to fill a vast amount of airtime on a budget that was a fraction of what the networks spend. CNN certainly went on to pioneer in the newly introduced 24 hour news-casting system and it wasn’t until the 90’s that other networks started catching up with it.
In this article, we have briefly explored the history of CNN and discussed its importance in today’s world. These days we are surrounded by a convergence of global culture that is bound together by the internet. In such a world, one must be careful and inquire into the source of the news that they receive to make sure it is neutral and avoids any association with an agenda. That is why people may be interested to look into the ownership of a media giant like CNN, in order to verify its credibility.
Is CNN still reliable as a news source?
CNN’s political news reporting is met with mixed opinions among citizens of the United States (as shown through a study at Statista) possibly due to its noticeable bias towards the left-wing perspective. Any non-political news, however, is majorly relied upon by all viewers.
Why did the former head of CNN resign?
The former head of CNN, Jeff Zucker reluctantly resigned in February 2022, after he refused to comment on an undisclosed consensual relationship with ex-CNN marketing head, Allison Gollust, and so he was replaced by Former CBS executive Chris Licht (CNBC).
How does CNN earn its revenue?
Subscription fees are CNN’s main source of income. 50 percent of its overall revenue comes from subscription fees, and the remaining 50 percent comes from advertising and other revenue sources. The fee-for-carriage is another significant element that contributes to CNN’s revenue growth. Broadcasters typically pay Distribution Platform Operators (DPO) the fee-for-carriage, also known as the TV tax, value-for-signal, and negotiations for value (s). (source: Studious).
How is CNN faring against its rivals?
CNN’s major competitor Fox News outperformed it on a domestic level in May 2021 with an average of 150,000 viewers compared to 351,000 for Fox News, and Fox’s day average rating of 1.55 million viewers was more than twice as high as CNN’s (700,000) for the entire day.However, judging from the total number of views that CNN generates, due to its international variant called CNNI, CNN has an overall bigger global following than FOX News.
