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CNN announced yesterday that it would shut down its CNNfn cable channel next month, abandoning its nine-year-old effort to create a financial news competitor to CNBC.
CNN executives said that distribution limitations were largely to blame, saying it was unlikely that CNNfn could grow much beyond its present reach of 30 million homes.
The executives said their company was facing the possible end of its relationship with the satellite distribution company DirecTV. A DirecTV executive said his company provided CNNfn with almost half of its distribution, 13 million homes.
"The growth has not come at the rate many of us had anticipated," said Jim Walton, president of the CNN News Group, which is part of Time Warner.
DirecTV is owned by the News Corporation, which also owns the Fox News Channel, CNN's biggest rival in cable news in the United States. News Corporation, which is controlled by Rupert Murdoch, has talked of starting a financial news network of its own, but has announced no definite plan.
"Clearly distribution was a challenge, but it was not the only factor,'' said Christa Robinson, a CNN spokeswoman, who added that CNNfn was profitable.
Still, even CNBC, the NBC Universal operation that has been successful, has suffered as the stock market has never fallen off, and the channel's viewership along with it.
Two of the more successful CNNfn programs, "Open House" and "Dolans Unscripted," will move to the main CNN news channel. That will preserve about 50 of the channel's 110 jobs. The other 60 employees will be given first consideration for the 100 positions being added to another CNN channel, Headline News.
Source: New York Times
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