CNN may have a new owner soon if the reports are right. According to a report from the New York Post, Warner Bros. Discovery could sell CNN this year. This comes as former CEO Jeff Zucker has reportedly become a possible buyer of the network.
These reports come as CNN’s ratings and ad revenue have continued to fall recently. Forcing many to wonder how long until Warner Bros. Discovery would be interested in selling the network.
This past March, CNN’s primetime audience decreased by 61 percent, averaging only 473,000 viewers. Many news networks are seeing declining numbers, but to put CNN’s numbers into perspective, Fox News Channel dropped 27 percent while MSNBC lost 12 percent of viewers. The two networks averaged significantly higher audience numbers, with Fox News Channel holding at 2.09 million and MSNBC averaging 1.14 million primetime viewers.
From January through April of this year, around 2,000 combined ad buyers spent $312.6 million on CNN’s digital and linear television advertisements, meaning ad revenue plummeted 39 percent from the same time period in 2022. This April alone saw the biggest drop with a 48 percent decrease, bringing in only $80 million in ad sale revenue. February was the lowest overall but had the least decline compared to other months when comparing 2023 to 2022 numbers.
According to reports, Jeff Zucker could be making an offer to buy the network this fall. It is estimated that CNN would sell for $5 billion to $6 billion if it was sold today.
Other reports have suggested that Warner Bros. Discover may not be interested in selling CNN even if offers come in for the network. With next year being a presidential election year in the United States, ad revenue for news networks typically goes up along with viewership. Warner Bros. Discovery may elect to keep CNN during that profitable time.
What is clear is how Americans are getting their news is changing. Now Warner Bros. Discovery has to decide how it wants to meet that changing world with CNN.