Inside CNN+'s implosion: Discovery had low expectations, CNN executives were suspicious of their new bosses

The New York Times

Discovery CEO David Zaslav and his team were confounded by CNN forging ahead with CNN+'s March 29 launch date. "Discovery was poised to take over the company within weeks. Why not just delay?" according to The New York Times' John Koblin, Michael M. Grynbaum and Benjamin Mullin. "Still, aides to Mr. Zaslav admitted one advantage: they would get a look at CNN+ performance, akin to a movie’s opening-night box office. Maybe once they looked under the hood, CNN+ would exceed their low expectations. Immediately after the merger closed on April 8, Discovery officials began asking for data on CNN+’s progress. They did not like what they saw. In a troubling sign, downloads for the service were waning, despite the big marketing push." Two weeks after its launch, Axios and CNBC published unflattering accounts of CNN+. "CNN executives were dismayed," reports The Times. "And they grew suspicious of their new superiors from Discovery, believing they had leaked the data to create a pretext to shut down the service." On April 21, Zaslav's team and CNN's incoming president Chris Licht finalized plans to kill CNN+. "Supporters of CNN+ lamented that the streaming service was not given much of a chance, and argued that the decision was harmful to the CNN brand, a misstep that would leave the network unprepared for a future where few Americans still watch cable TV," says The Times. Meanwhile, Jeff Zucker, the former CNN president who conceived of CNN+, has not spoken to Zaslav -- whom he said last year was "the best friend that anyone could ever want" -- since his exit on Feb. 2.