{"id":369468,"date":"2025-11-10T15:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/369468\/"},"modified":"2025-11-10T15:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T15:37:13","slug":"cnns-news-brought-to-you-by-t-mobile-in-aggressive-ad-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/369468\/","title":{"rendered":"CNN’s News, Brought to You by T-Mobile in Aggressive Ad Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tTV\u2019s news shows are often brought to you by a sponsor. Now, in the case of CNN<\/a>, so too is its actual newsgathering.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs part of a bold ad deal, T-Mobile<\/a>\u2019s logo will turn up often on CNN\u2019s digital screens when CNN reporters and correspondents deliver live reportage from outside the studio, a sign that the telecom giant\u2019s nascent \u201cSuperMobile\u201d service, tailored for business users who want quick, reliable connections and privacy safeguards, has helped establish the connection between journalists and audience. T-Mobile struck a similar deal in October with Fox Corp\u2019s Fox Weather streaming service.<\/p>\n

\n\tSuch stuff is tricky in the news environment, and CNN will have to navigate the process carefully. What if T-Mobile becomes the center of a national story? Or what if the T-Mobile logo surfaces on screen while a correspondent is in the midst of covering a riot or outbreak of war? Others have tread upon this ground,<\/a> including MSNBC\u2019s \u201cMorning Joe,\u201d which for years enjoyed a sponsorship from a certain coffee giant that included on-air promotion saying the show was \u201cbrewed by Starbucks.\u201d The network raised eyebrows in 2011 when co-anchor Mika Brzezinski conducted a seven-minute-long interview with Howard Schultz, then Starbucks\u2019 CEO, without any mention of the advertising support.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tCNN and T-Mobile seem aware of the challenges. \u201cOur anchors and reporters and journalists can\u2019t have any implicit or explicit endorsement of any product,\u201d notes Guy Griggs<\/a>, recently named senior vice president of advertising sales and partnerships at the Warner Bros. Discovery news operation. And there are times when having T-Mobile\u2019s logo on screen would not work, acknowledges Mo Katibeh, chief marketing officer of T-Mobile\u2019s business services. \u201cWe will be sensitive in our approach,\u201d he notes. When viewers \u201care there for the news\u201d at critical moments, he adds, \u201cwe wouldn\u2019t manifest the logo\u201d on screen.<\/p>\n

\n\tStill, the alliance may offer new ideas for the nation\u2019s biggest backers of TV news<\/a>, who have been hard-pressed to win ad dollars for such programing in recent years.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe know business leaders don\u2019t want an ad. They want proof that technology works and it\u2019s there for them at the moments that matter,\u201d says Katibeh, during a recent interview. \u00a0\u201cThey are going to see uninterrupted live CNN coverage during the biggest news moments.\u201d The on-screen demonstration makes clear how T-Mobile\u2019s efforts help \u201ctrusted professionals like CNN\u2019s journalists deliver breaking news live, securely, and from virtually anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tMarketers continue to be wary of putting commercials against content that might feature harsh images or tough conversations. More of the big TV-news operations feature hot-talk programming in primetime that is designed to appeal to partisan audiences, or just those looking for tension or a verbal donnybrook. And yet, many advertisers need to appeal to the broadest audience possible, and, as such, have moved money out of news as the world has grappled with international battles, climate change, a global pandemic and political extremism.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndeed, all three of the nation\u2019s cable-news outlets are projected to have a shortfall in advertising revenue for 2025.\u00a0 CNN\u2019s ad sales are seen falling 10% in 2025 to $576.2 million, according to data from Kagan, a market-research firm that is part of S&P Global Intelligence. MSNBC\u2019s is estimated to fall by 11% to $653.9 million. Meanwhile Fox News Channel\u2019s advertising is forecast to dip by about 3% to nearly $1.4 billion, though the network\u2019s parent company recently announced it saw record ad revenue for the outlet in its most recent fiscal quarter.<\/p>\n

\n\tT-Mobile \u201cis a marketer that needs to hit high-value audiences, and partnerships that are authentic enable them to do that and showcase like the power of their technology solutions,\u201d says Griggs. Marketers remain concerned about issues tied to \u201cbrand safety,\u201d he notes, but this new alliance \u201cprovides a very authentic path toward reaching an audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tT-Mobile comes to CNN\u2019s screens just as the news company is working to widen its audience. CNN last month launched a new \u201cAll Access\u201d streaming service<\/a> that gives subscribers access to more reporting and video, including deep-dive, long-form journalism that only occasionally finds a place on the company\u2019s linear cable network.\u00a0 CNN is using the fact that it has one of the largest cadre of journalists covering news around the world as a means of luring potential customers.<\/p>\n

\n\tIf the new ad pact works, audiences would come to view T-Mobile as helping to support the CNN reports that keep them informed, says Griggs. \u201cWe are going from this linear cable news network that has defined real-time journalism on TV for the last 45 years, and we\u2019re now going to be this global digital-first, streaming-first news brand of the 21st century, really reaching audiences across every screen device and platform, and T-Mobile\u2019s going to be there, helping us do that\u201d he says. \u00a0T-Mobile will also back various facets of \u201cAll Access,\u201d he says, including a new live, vertical video feed, \u201cenabling and empowering our journalists to go wherever they are across the country, to get the news that our audiences need.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tIn decades past, CNN was known in advertising circles for being very cautious <\/a>about weaving commercials into its news coverage. But the network, like its rivals, has faced increasing demand from advertisers for closer ties to the news programs themselves, as well as content that looks a lot like programming<\/a>. Indeed, CNN last year sold commercials in its telecast of a presidential debate between President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump, bucking years of keeping such an event ad-free.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\tNearly all the mainstream news outlets have had to grapple with similar choices. NBC News in past years created videos for Xerox that talked about stories and subjects of interest to the audiences that watch different news and sports networks owned by parent NBCUniversal. On CNBC, promotional vignettes tackled financial news, while MSNBC\u2019s examined progressive topics. NBCUniversal once had a pact with retirement and investment company ING that called for the creation of personal-finance segments on CNBC\u2019s \u201cMad Money with Jim Cramer\u201d as well as NBC\u2019s \u201cToday.\u201d Disney has in recent months sought sponsors who might put logos in a ticker at the bottom of the screen<\/a> of a new short-form news program, \u201cWhat You Need to Know,\u201d which streams on Disney+.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome modern advertising deals probably would not have been embraced decades ago. Both \u201cToday\u201d and \u201cGood Morning America\u201d have allowed advertisers like Walmart or Starz to sponsor individual story segments tied to topics that help burnish the advertisers. Fox News Channel in 2019 allowed the anchors of \u201cFox & Friends\u201d to appear in promotional vignettes touting the Dodge Durango<\/a>. And, in a pact similar to the one CNN has entered, CNBC struck a deal with Cisco in 2010 that showed how the technology company\u2019s TelePresence networking equipment helped the news outlet bring authoritative sources to the screen.<\/p>\n

\n\tCNN has good reason to court the telecom marketer. In 2017, CNN often won more than 40% or 50% of telecom ad dollars spent on cable news, according to Guideline, a tracker of advertiser spending on media. But in the third quarter of 2025, CNN\u2019s command of share of that category had fallen to 10%.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the late 2010s, people were still frequently buying phones with each new launch. Telco companies had an incentive to spend across the board to get people to come out and buy new phones,\u201d says Sean Wright, Guideline\u2019s chief insights and analytics officer. \u201cAs new features on phones have slowed and financing a new phone has become increasingly expensive, people are now buying new phones every 2.5 years,\u201d and telco advertisers are increasingly focused on sales to corporations. As a result, he says, more of their ad spending has moved to venues including CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business.<\/p>\n

\n\tT-Mobile has spent months running commercials showing how it\u2019s trying to help consumers break through communications obstacles. It\u2019s \u201cSuper Mobile\u201d service is just the latest in a series of ads that demonstrate \u201chow we smash customer pain points,\u201d says Katibeh. During this year\u2019s Super Bowl, T-Mobile backed away from its usual coterie of commercials featuring celebrities<\/a> in favor of a spot touting its ability to help customers vanquish so-called \u2018dead zones\u201d by connecting them to service.<\/p>\n

\n\tCNN could be open to similar connections with Madison Avenue, says Griggs. \u201cIf it makes sense to provide a better experience to our audience, we are here for it and we definitely want to kick the tires on what\u2019s out there,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TV\u2019s news shows are often brought to you by a sponsor. Now, in the case of CNN, so…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":369469,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[10755,171,178345,4521,173,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-369468","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-cnn","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-guy-griggs","11":"tag-t-mobile","12":"tag-tv","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115526149376295492","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369468","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=369468"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369468\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369468"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369468"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369468"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}