CNN International & Domestic

Agree. US news channels are tabloids. They’re awful. Whilst it’s no great loss with Fox News or MSNBC, it’s very unfortunate that CNN, with a formidable international news gathering capability, has been lost to talking heads. Can’t argue with the ratings for all three of them though. Pays better to be tabloid tv.

I think that's a little bit harsh in general terms. Certainly Fox News, Newsmax TV and others on the political right are very tabloid in their presentation and agenda, I would argue that MSNBC and CNN are less so, though they do borrow some tabloid elements occasionally. Only CBSN is like the kind of straight news model that we're used to in this country.

Sure but what's the point if they will make it FTA on Freesat and similar systems in Europe?

Yes, to be fair, I wasn’t including CBSN. I was only referring to the big three news channels as the equivalent of tabloids. Evening newscasts on the broadcast networks is also still good.

Softball comedy interviews with Cuomo's big brother are another recent CNN trademark.....

.⁦@CNN⁩ Doesn't Ask ⁦@NYGovCuomo⁩ About Nursing Home Deaths. Shame on ⁦@PoppyHarlowCNN⁩ and ⁦@jimsciutto⁩. Bravo to ⁦@SRuhle⁩ on ⁦@MSNBC⁩ for being a Journalist. https://t.co/6lBLYRGF8L

— Janice Dean (@JaniceDean) June 22, 2020

https://www.mediaite.com/news/cnns-poppy-harlow-jim-sciutto-dont-ask-gov-cuomo-about-ny-nursing-home-deaths-in-9-minute-interview/

The comedy cotton bud moment with the Cuomos was a particular lowpoint and the sort of thing CNN will have no choice but to blame themselves for if it's brought up to discredit them as a news organisation in future. The optics of that bit were truly awful.

It's a shame too - as the CNNUS garbage drags down some of the largely good output CNNI can have when it's actually allowed on air.

Most people in Europe don't have their own satellite dishes. Cable is by far the most common method of pay-TV distribution on the continent, and CNNI gets a fee for each cable subscriber:

http://www.cable-europe.eu/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/140805_FF-YE2013_FINAL.pdf

That data is from 2013 - I wonder how it's changed since?

I'm a bit surprised most people in Europe don't own a satellite dish given how many of them I count when I visit other countries. But that aside, here's a what-if. If CNNI becomes FTA on UK DTV (i.e. Freeview), who is going to pay the network (i.e. who does CNN send the bill to)? It is available terrestrially in the Netherlands and Sweden but I reckon Digitenne and Boxer respectively are the payers.

I think it depends really on the country you visit. Holland has a strong cable network setup while parts of Greece (Crete in particular) look like a satellite tracking station

On another throwback note, who remembers Ulrika Nilsson? She did weekends for CNNI in the late 90s but little did I know she was Swedish at the time given that she has a wonderful north american (sometimes bordering on southern) accent.

She's now quite active on the newscasts of Sweden's equivalent to ITV1.

Here's a breakdown from 2017 from the European Audiovisual Observatory -- cable is brown, its cousin IPTV is dark blue, while satellite is light blue; some countries also have pay-TV via DTT; that's shown as green: