Warner Bros Discovery Inc, which owns leftist news channel CNN, is reportedly set to add live programming from the network to the cable channel Max, formerly known as HBO Max.

CNN launched a streaming service, CNN+, in March 2022, featuring segments from the likes of former Fox News anchor Chris Wallace, NPR’s Audie Cornish and CNN news anchor Jake Tapper. But the project lasted only a couple weeks as viewers never materialized.

So Warner Bros is looking to try another platform, Bloomberg News reported, citing “people familiar with the matter.” But the move may not be as easy as it seems.

“Putting news on Max in the US could be complicated,” Bloomberg reported. “Pay-TV providers like Comcast Corp. and DirecTV typically pay for the right to offer cable channels to their subscribers and are sensitive about efforts by media companies to offer the same programming online.”

Sources told Bloomberg that the network already distributes live shows in Europe and elsewhere abroad and top executives at CNN are looking to find ways to do so within the United States.

CNN’s ratings have cratered. Last month, the network posted a massive 25% decline in primetime ratings compared to a year before. The channel brought in just 494,000 average total viewers in primetime in May according to Nielsen, the New York Post reported.

That number is shocking when you consider that CNN is available in 80 million U.S. households, according to CNN’s own factsheet. That means the network is drawing just more than 0.5% of its available audience.

That CNN’s streaming service perished so quickly is alarming as more and more Americans cut the cable cord — especially young people. The Hollywood Reporter posted this story last week with an alarming headline: “Cord-Cutting to Reduce Pay TV to Just 38 Percent of U.S. Households by 2027, PwC Forecasts.”

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“Global TV subscription revenue will fall to $173.6 billion in 2027, from nearly $200 billion just a decade earlier, declining at a 0.9 percent compound annual rate between 2022 and 2027,” the piece said. “And the number of U.S. pay TV homes will further drop to 49.9 million homes in 2027 amid continued cord-cutting, reducing pay TV’s presence to just 38 percent of U.S. households.”

So CNN looks doomed. The reason it has survived this long is because cable companies pay to air the network — even though few are watching. If CNN is forced to survive on its own merits, it could quickly disappear, just as its steaming service did within weeks.

“What’s more, CNN faces a tougher environment for capturing advertising dollars,” Variety reports. “CNN is projected to see 2023 ad revenue fall about 5%, to $562.6 million, according to Kagan, a market-research unit of S&P Global Intelligence, and the network has suffered from noticeable declines in viewership in recent months.”

So prepare yourself for life without CNN. Won’t that be wonderful?

The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent for a national newspaper. He was also the a.m. editor of the Drudge Report for four years. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.