Is live CNN coming to Max?

Max is already looking to be your one-stop shop for streaming video, and now there’s chatter that the just-rebranded streaming service is eyeing live news coverage too, courtesy of CNN.

Executives at Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of Max, have “already decided” to add live CNN coverage to the mix of Max’s offerings in overseas markets, and they might also bring live CNN to Max in the U.S., Bloomberg News reports.

It’s still not clear what live CNN streaming via Max would entail, assuming it actually happens.

As the Bloomberg report notes, simply offering a live feed of CNN on basic cable would probably run afoul of the big cable operators, who pay a pretty penny for the 24/7 news network.

Instead, Warner Bros. Discovery may opt for a “different approach” that would avoid the need to negotiate contracts with the likes of Comcast and Spectrum, the Bloomberg report says.

Of course, word of live CNN coming to Max brings to mind the abrupt demise of CNN+, the would-be CNN streaming service that was shuttered mere weeks after its April 2022 debut.

CNN+ didn’t offer a live feed of the basic-cable CNN flagship; instead, the service was intended as a companion to CNN with its own on-demand shows, hosted by on-air personalities such as Chris Wallace, Anderson Cooper, Poppy Harlow, Kasie Hunt, Wolf Blitzer, Kate Bolduan, and Audie Cornish. 

As Bloomberg notes, some orphaned CNN+ shows are now available on Max, including those hosted by Wallace and Cooper. But for now, Max doesn’t offer any live CNN programming–or any live shows at all.

While some of Max’s biggest streaming competitors do offer live programming, most of it centers on sports.

Amazon Prime Video, for example, has Thursday Night Football, while Apple TV+ serves up Friday Night Baseball and Major League Soccer matches. Then there’s Peacock, with live Olympics coverage, while Disney+ briefly had live Dancing with the Stars, until ABC took it back.

Netflix hasn’t tried any live news or sports coverage yet, but it has dabbled in live comedy with the Selective Outrage special from Chris Rock and, more recently, the ill-fated Love is Blind live reunion.

So if Max did go ahead with a live news coverage via CNN, it would be taking a decidedly different approach to live video than its biggest streaming competitors–and a somewhat daring one, given last year’s outright rejection of CNN+.