CNN+: Some good shows, but new streamer faces lots of challenges 

WHAT IT'S ABOUT CNN's new streaming service, CNN+, launched March 29 with a couple dozen programs, including daily hard news ones like "Go There" (reports from the field), "5 Things" (news headlines), and "The Newscast" (Wolf Blitzer anchoring); interview, or roundtable, programs, like "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace" and "The Source with Kasie Hunt"; evergreen interview programs like "Full Circle with Anderson Cooper" (in the opener he talks with mindfulness expert Jon Kabat-Zinn), "Parental Guidance with Anderson Cooper," and "Jake Tapper's Book Club"; and a spinoff or two, including "Reliable Sources Daily." 

There's much "re-purposed" content as well, including "The Best of Larry King," and classics like "Anthony Bourdain Parts Unknown." Cost: $2.99 per month, initially.

MY SAY Looming over this historic launch are The Questions — big ones that tend to ask themselves but resist easy, glib answers. There's that obvious so-called "existential" one (has streaming jumped the shark? Wall Street certainly seems to think so). Then, there's the "who's got the time for this anyway?" challenge. 

Do you? (Well? Do you?) 

If first impressions matter — they do — CNN+ has at least launched with positive ones. Most of the sampled shows are good and a few — notably "Big Picture with Sara Sidner" and "Global Brief with Bianca Nobilo" — are even better. The interview programs (Wallace's) are thoughtful, if long-winded. The personality-driven ones (Cooper's, Tapper's) let established stars stretch. The news-driven ones ("Go There") let established reporters do the same. 

    There's a general air of sobriety with this new service — little flash, not much opinion, just a lot of news. 

Nevertheless, you can be reasonably certain that even CNN+ is aware of the considerable hurdles ahead when two new series ("Reliable Sources Daily," "No Mercy No Malice with Scott Galloway") offered some variation of the "Has Streaming Jumped the Shark?" story.

Tech author/ provocateur Galloway mock-pleaded with viewers to sign up CNN+ "a thousand times" by pretending "it's an NFT from Melania Trump and you're just downloading it from some sort of crypto-hardware wallet or something." 

If streaming has indeed shark-jumped, it's easy to see why after spending much time with this newcomer. For one thing, you don't have time for anything else. The dog wants to be let out? He'll have to wait. The burning smell coming from the kitchen? That too. CNN+ tends to demolish the idea a generation of viewers has grown comfortable with — that cable news is video wallpaper, and just there, as background noise which sporadically demands your attention when real news breaks. 

Instead, CNN+ envisions a unicorn viewer who has no time to eat or sleep and whose eyes have evolved into a pair of squares. Unbroken (also unburdened) by commercials, CNN+ shows stream until they don't. After the closing credits a black screen arrives to shake you out of your reverie, or stupor, then it's back to the homepage for more of the same.

CNN+ is like all streaming services that exist within their own virtual hyperbaric chambers, except that some of its shows stream (or air) elsewhere. For example, "Global Brief" is also on CNN International, which streams on Hulu. Perhaps hedging its bets, "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace '' is re-purposed on YouTube 24 hours later. 

 And speaking of YouTube, CNN has its own well-established and popular channel there, plus 24-hour streaming channels for various "AVODs' (advertising based video on demand) like PlutoTV, too. Likewise, the network's many films and documentaries — also re-purposed on CNN+ — are available elsewhere, like Netflix and HBO Max. 

Besides mother channel CNN, there is so much CNN everywhere else that CNN+ can start to feel redundant after a point — or worse, like overkill. 

Good shows, good start but CNN+ will need time to grow. Other than a unicorn, who has any of that anymore?   

 BOTTOM LINE Big challenges ahead.