CNN Pipeline
Encyclopedia
CNN Pipeline was an English language
video news service providing both live and on-demand video to subscribers' computer
s via broadband
Internet connections. It was part of the CNN
group of news services. The service was subscription-based, and did not contain advertising
like other CNN stations. Pipeline was made available to the public on December 5, 2005, after years of planning and months of internal testing. The bandwidth
, storage and streaming servers was provided by AOL
, which is also owned by Time Warner
. Each of the feeds broadcast in the 16:9
aspect ratio
, however the resolution of the broadcast prohibited it from being considered a high definition
channel, and in many cases not even SDTV.
On June 27, 2007, CNN discontinued the CNN Pipeline service, to be succeeded by a free ad-supported live-video stream starting on July 2. If the stand-alone Windows program was opened after June 27, CNN initiated an automatic uninstallation of the software from the subscriber's hard drive. CNN said that while it would continue to provide the four live video streams and video archives, it was abandoning the subscription model. According to CNN's blog
, the reason they discontinued the service was to encourage a greater number of people to use the service. They stated they were not actually getting rid of Pipeline, or any of its features (other than the desktop program), rather funneling all of the content into CNN.com
's video section for free. This transfer of Pipeline from a pay service to an integrated free service came at a time of video being offered online for free en masse, such as YouTube
and TV networks offering full TV shows for free online with ads
, which did not exist at Pipeline's inception.
NOTE: The main news program was also on from 5:00 - 6:00 UTC on pipe 2 on weekends. Also on weekends, "The Best Of CNN Pipeline" was on at 9:30 AM EST and at 8PM EST is "Pipeline on Stage".
The live raw feeds was of news events as they took place around the world, are were chosen by Pipeline's producers. Graphics of headlines, stock market indexes, and sports headlines took the place of advertisements during the main news program, and also when an advertisement appeared on CNN International
when being simulcasted on the service.
Contractual obligations prohibited the direct simulcasting of CNN's American news channels, "CNN" and "HLN" (unless the channel was being simulcast on CNN International). This prevented popular CNN personalities from anchoring live breaking news except when CNN International simulcasted the American service.
Subscribers also received access to much of CNN's archive through the pipeline player.
Additionally, regular featured programs found on CNN's American services were unavailable to Pipeline users. This fact was not made clear in advertisements for the service, so some American or Canadian users expecting online access to CNN
and Headline News to which they were accustomed to were disappointed.
Pipes was also used for special events as well. On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary
of the September 11, 2001 attacks
, CNN Pipeline carried a real-time rebroadcast of CNN's then-live coverage of the attacks for 15 and a half hours. Free access for Pipeline was offered for a day on November 6, 2006, in line with the US mid-term elections'
coverage.
, Nicole Lapin
, Melissa Long
and Richard Lui
. The four shared the anchor seat in front of a virtual studio
in the CNN Center
. Like other CNN
stations, the anchors of CNN Pipeline conducted interviews with CNN reporters, and use CNN studios for videoconference interviews.
The program was broadcast for 12 hours each weekday, from 12:00 - 00:00 UTC (8:00 AM – 8:00 PM Eastern Time) and 1 hour on weekends, 5:00 - 6:00 UTC. The news program periodically simulcasted either CNN International
North America's feed, or CNN
U.S. during breaking news
events. Because of the compression required, CNN Pipeline could not be considered a live broadcast
- however, the delay was usually in second
s.
and its programming is heavily aimed towards American viewers, users in 40 other countries were able to subscribe to the service and view Pipeline content.
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
video news service providing both live and on-demand video to subscribers' computer
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
s via broadband
Broadband
The term broadband refers to a telecommunications signal or device of greater bandwidth, in some sense, than another standard or usual signal or device . Different criteria for "broad" have been applied in different contexts and at different times...
Internet connections. It was part of the CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
group of news services. The service was subscription-based, and did not contain advertising
Advertising
Advertising is a form of communication used to persuade an audience to take some action with respect to products, ideas, or services. Most commonly, the desired result is to drive consumer behavior with respect to a commercial offering, although political and ideological advertising is also common...
like other CNN stations. Pipeline was made available to the public on December 5, 2005, after years of planning and months of internal testing. The bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
, storage and streaming servers was provided by AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, which is also owned by Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
. Each of the feeds broadcast in the 16:9
16:9
16:9 is an aspect ratio with a width of 16 units and height of 9. Since 2009, it has become the most common aspect ratio for sold televisions and computer monitors and is also the international standard format of HDTV, Full HD, non-HD digital television and analog widescreen television ...
aspect ratio
Pixel aspect ratio
Pixel aspect ratio is a mathematical ratio that describes how the width of a pixel in a digital image compares to the height of that pixel....
, however the resolution of the broadcast prohibited it from being considered a high definition
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
channel, and in many cases not even SDTV.
On June 27, 2007, CNN discontinued the CNN Pipeline service, to be succeeded by a free ad-supported live-video stream starting on July 2. If the stand-alone Windows program was opened after June 27, CNN initiated an automatic uninstallation of the software from the subscriber's hard drive. CNN said that while it would continue to provide the four live video streams and video archives, it was abandoning the subscription model. According to CNN's blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
, the reason they discontinued the service was to encourage a greater number of people to use the service. They stated they were not actually getting rid of Pipeline, or any of its features (other than the desktop program), rather funneling all of the content into CNN.com
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
's video section for free. This transfer of Pipeline from a pay service to an integrated free service came at a time of video being offered online for free en masse, such as YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
and TV networks offering full TV shows for free online with ads
ADS
ADS or Ads may refer to:In computing:* Advanced Design System, an EDA tool from Agilent EEsof EDA* Advantage Database Server, a Relational Database Management System* Alternate data stream, a filesystem fork in Microsoft NTFS...
, which did not exist at Pipeline's inception.
"Pipes"
CNN Pipeline maintained four simultaneous feeds (known as "pipes"), which had both a primary and a secondary use. From 00:00 - 12:00 UTC on weekdays, and all day on weekends, the secondary use was shown on the feeds, meanwhile all other times the primary use was displayed.| Pipe Number | Primary Use | Secondary Use | 24 hour broadcast |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Main news program | CNN International CNN International CNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly... simulcast Simulcast Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often... |
Yes |
| 2 | Raw video feed | CNN Newsource CNN Newsource CNN Newsource is an affiliation video service from CNN. The service is subscription based and provides CNN content to television stations affiliated with CNN, including terrestrial stations and international stations.... channel 1 simulcast Simulcast Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often... |
No |
| 3 | Raw video feed | CNN Newsource CNN Newsource CNN Newsource is an affiliation video service from CNN. The service is subscription based and provides CNN content to television stations affiliated with CNN, including terrestrial stations and international stations.... channel 2 simulcast Simulcast Simulcast, shorthand for "simultaneous broadcast", refers to programs or events broadcast across more than one medium, or more than one service on the same medium, at the same time. For example, Absolute Radio is simulcast on both AM and on satellite radio, and the BBC's Prom concerts are often... |
No |
| 4 | CNN Weather | CNN Weather / Raw video feed | Yes |
NOTE: The main news program was also on from 5:00 - 6:00 UTC on pipe 2 on weekends. Also on weekends, "The Best Of CNN Pipeline" was on at 9:30 AM EST and at 8PM EST is "Pipeline on Stage".
The live raw feeds was of news events as they took place around the world, are were chosen by Pipeline's producers. Graphics of headlines, stock market indexes, and sports headlines took the place of advertisements during the main news program, and also when an advertisement appeared on CNN International
CNN International
CNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly...
when being simulcasted on the service.
Contractual obligations prohibited the direct simulcasting of CNN's American news channels, "CNN" and "HLN" (unless the channel was being simulcast on CNN International). This prevented popular CNN personalities from anchoring live breaking news except when CNN International simulcasted the American service.
Subscribers also received access to much of CNN's archive through the pipeline player.
Additionally, regular featured programs found on CNN's American services were unavailable to Pipeline users. This fact was not made clear in advertisements for the service, so some American or Canadian users expecting online access to CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
and Headline News to which they were accustomed to were disappointed.
Pipes was also used for special events as well. On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary
Anniversary
An anniversary is a day that commemorates or celebrates a past event that occurred on the same day of the year as the initial event. For example, the first event is the initial occurrence or, if planned, the inaugural of the event. One year later would be the first anniversary of that event...
of the September 11, 2001 attacks
September 11, 2001 attacks
The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks (also referred to as September 11, September 11th or 9/119/11 is pronounced "nine eleven". The slash is not part of the pronunciation...
, CNN Pipeline carried a real-time rebroadcast of CNN's then-live coverage of the attacks for 15 and a half hours. Free access for Pipeline was offered for a day on November 6, 2006, in line with the US mid-term elections'
United States general elections, 2006
The 2006 United States midterm elections were held on Tuesday, November 7, 2006. All United States House of Representatives seats and one third of the United States Senate seats were contested in this election, as well as 36 state governorships, many state legislatures, four territorial...
coverage.
News Program
CNN Pipeline's anchors were Veronica De La CruzVeronica De La Cruz
Veronica De La Cruz is a Filipino American television anchor formerly with CNN. In July 2010, she appeared as a late night anchor on MSNBC. At the current time, she appears on both NBC and MSNBC, primarily anchoring NBC's Early Today show and MSNBC's First Look...
, Nicole Lapin
Nicole Lapin
Nicole Miriam Lapin is an anchor on CNN Live who regularly appeared on CNN Headline News, CNN, and CNN International. In January 2010, Lapin joined CNBC in New York as an anchor for Worldwide Exchange, joining CNBC Europe's Ross Westgate in London and CNBC Asia's Christine Tan in Singapore. She...
, Melissa Long
Melissa Long
Melissa Long is a journalist for Bloomberg TV based in New York City.She was previously a news anchor and reporter for CNN.com, HLN and CNN TV. She joined CNN in 2005 and was based in the network's world headquarters in Atlanta. Prior to CNN, Long worked as an anchor and reporter for WROC-TV in...
and Richard Lui
Richard Lui
Richard Lui is a dayside news anchor for MSNBC. Lui can be seen weekday mornings from 10am-12pm on Jansing and Company on MSNBC. Prior to joining MSNBC, Lui was anchor for the 10am ET edition of Morning Express on CNN Headline News...
. The four shared the anchor seat in front of a virtual studio
Virtual studio
The term virtual studio can refer to any number of technological tools which seek to simulate a physical television and/or movie studio. One such use of the term follows....
in the CNN Center
CNN Center
The CNN Center is the world headquarters of the Cable News Network . The main newsrooms and studios for several of CNN's news channels are located in the building...
. Like other CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
stations, the anchors of CNN Pipeline conducted interviews with CNN reporters, and use CNN studios for videoconference interviews.
The program was broadcast for 12 hours each weekday, from 12:00 - 00:00 UTC (8:00 AM – 8:00 PM Eastern Time) and 1 hour on weekends, 5:00 - 6:00 UTC. The news program periodically simulcasted either CNN International
CNN International
CNN International is an international English language television network that carries news, current affairs, politics, opinions, and business programming worldwide. CNN is one of the world's largest news organizations. It is owned by Time Warner, and is affiliated with CNN, which is mainly...
North America's feed, or CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
U.S. during breaking news
Breaking news
Breaking news, also known as a special report or news bulletin, is a current event that broadcasters feel warrants the interruption of scheduled programming and/or current news in order to report its details. Many times, breaking news is used after the news network has already reported on this story...
events. Because of the compression required, CNN Pipeline could not be considered a live broadcast
Live television
Live television refers to a television production broadcast in real-time, as events happen, in the present. From the early days of television until about 1958, live television was used heavily, except for filmed shows such as I Love Lucy and Gunsmoke. Video tape did not exist until 1957...
- however, the delay was usually in second
Second
The second is a unit of measurement of time, and is the International System of Units base unit of time. It may be measured using a clock....
s.
Prices
CNN Pipeline offered three levels of subscriptions:- A one-year subscription for $24.95 USD
- A one-month subscription for $2.95 USD
- A one-day subscription (called a "Daypass") for $0.99 USD;
Country availability
While CNN Pipeline was based in the United StatesUnited States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and its programming is heavily aimed towards American viewers, users in 40 other countries were able to subscribe to the service and view Pipeline content.