News Junkies Rejoice
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting (reg req) that CNN Pipeline will come out of beta on Monday and will reportedly become available for a $25 annual subscription. If you are not familiar with the concept, it is a broadband service that will be available in widescreen format. Most of the content will be live, uncut, uncommentated video with four simultaneous streams that have been designed to be viewed from within the service's console, or tacked into a corner of your screen for easy viewing while you work.
The Atlanta paper is also reporting that CNN-International will be one of the streams from 8pm to 8am (Eastern) and specially-produced news wrap-ups will occasionally be available on one of the streams, or from the service's archive.
Pipeline will not be ad-supported. It is supposed to rely entirely on the subscription model. The root concept is simple; Point a camera at news and let it flow. The service has been in the works for more than a year and in beta since August, so it should emerge fully formed. If they were to simply rebroadcast their cable channels, it would conflict with their licensing agreements. Personally, I don't see that if breaking news were to happen and the cable channels were to go commercial-free, why they couldn't package their anchor's voice-overs, but thus far, it hasn't happened and like so many other services from CNN; Pipeline has a separate staff.
Right now, CNN Pipeline is being hyped as a reinvention of the online news medium and like many other people, I can hardly wait.
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Note: Publish.com previewed the beta last month and there had been talk of a 99¢ daypass, but it isn't mentioned in the AJC article. I'm sure more details will become available as the promotional campaign gets underway. Reportedly, they need several hundred thousand subscribers to recoup their investment, so enticements are most likely in the works.
The Atlanta paper is also reporting that CNN-International will be one of the streams from 8pm to 8am (Eastern) and specially-produced news wrap-ups will occasionally be available on one of the streams, or from the service's archive.
Pipeline will not be ad-supported. It is supposed to rely entirely on the subscription model. The root concept is simple; Point a camera at news and let it flow. The service has been in the works for more than a year and in beta since August, so it should emerge fully formed. If they were to simply rebroadcast their cable channels, it would conflict with their licensing agreements. Personally, I don't see that if breaking news were to happen and the cable channels were to go commercial-free, why they couldn't package their anchor's voice-overs, but thus far, it hasn't happened and like so many other services from CNN; Pipeline has a separate staff.
Right now, CNN Pipeline is being hyped as a reinvention of the online news medium and like many other people, I can hardly wait.
---
Note: Publish.com previewed the beta last month and there had been talk of a 99¢ daypass, but it isn't mentioned in the AJC article. I'm sure more details will become available as the promotional campaign gets underway. Reportedly, they need several hundred thousand subscribers to recoup their investment, so enticements are most likely in the works.