The Cable Wars

John Dills, Staff Writer

Due to politics, many people think that CNN and Fox News are the only two networks fighting over an audience. With hints of change in 2021, The Cable Wars, the fight between MSNBC, CNN and Fox News is just starting to get intense in 2022. 

According to Statista, Fox News is leading in the most primetime viewership with 2.58 million tuning in. Following that, MSNBC is holding a solid 1.09 million viewers during primetime. At the last of the three, CNN is averaging 650 thousand viewers during primetime. The lead of over one million by Fox News is surprising to some, as many people are against this network for their political opinions. The lack of viewership on CNN would also be surprising because many people would say that CNN is the biggest rival of Fox News.

CNN is currently in the process of launching CNN+, a streaming service that will bring all of the productions of CNN into one place available on demand. This is just in time to battle for streaming since Fox News launched Fox Nation, their streaming service, in 2018. CNN+ is going to be available through a monthly subscription similar to how Fox Nation has their platform set up. CNN+ is looking to partner with other streaming services through bundling in hopes of grabbing a larger audience. 

MSNBC is taking a new approach to the streaming service options. The inclusion of their channels being added to other streaming services such as Hulu, fuboTV and Sling TV is a completely different approach than the way the two other channels have taken. The network has not released any plans to launch their own streaming services as of now, but could quite possibly release their own streaming platform in the future. 

Streaming services are largely being consumed by the younger generations, and as time progresses they will most likely be the main way that people consume television. For these news networks, that means adaptation and preparation for switching to an on-demand setup.