Mumbai: This one is for those news channel executives and owners in India who don’t seem to have the confidence to launch their own streaming services. Cable TV news pioneer CNN – part of the WarnerMedia (now WarnerBros.Discovery) group, is working on its OTT service called – what else do you expect –CNN+, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

The platform is likely to be subscription driven and launch plans are being speeded up to allow it to debut much before the merger between CNN owner Warner Media and Discovery gets completed and the combined media behemoth resurfaces as Warner Bros.Discovery.

CNN+ has signed up deals with its prime anchors led by Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon to create new programmes – aside from the ones they have on the cable TV news service - , offering them higher packages, and possibly even bonuses related to subscriber growth.

Rivals such as Fox News got into the streaming fray 18 months ago as Fox Nation, offering differentiated programming than what is served on the network. Subscription numbers are just in the hundreds of thousands, but the new streamer has helped the Murdoch owned news service stay relevant to a new generation of digital first customers.

The Comcast owned streamer Peacock, also has given space to programmes from sister news services MSNBC and CNBC, as has the Viacom owned Paramount+ which has news shows such as 60 minutes  from its CBS News operation.

Will Indian news channel leaders take a cue from the bustle of activity taking place in the US and also launch their own streaming services? So far they have been happy have a meek presence with their online web site avatars or have their linear channels streamed on other OTTs such as Disney+Hotstar or Zee5. It’s over to the news channel managements.