CNN will give away access to an online video service that now costs $25 USD a year, becoming the latest news organization to revamp its revenue model on the web. CNN Spokeswoman Jennifer Martin said CNN may eventually show ads with the live video, "but not when it launches. People don"t like to pay for stuff on the Internet. We"re not going to deny it, but we also had to make sure from a cost perspective that we got to the stage where it made sense to offer it for free."
The premium service, called Pipeline, includes four live video streams, at least one of which is anchored, and archives containing more than 50,000 clips. By contrast, the free section of CNN.com has about 600 videos at any given time, and those clips are generally moved behind subscription walls after two weeks. As of July 1st, the Pipeline videos will move to the free section.