A CNN and CBS News tie-up would radically transform the industry

At the turn of the millennium, when Microsoft still owned 50 percent of MSNBC, and before Fox News cemented itself as ratings leader post-9/11, CNN was cable news king.

Sure, the broadcast networks still had vast audiences, but the economics of CNN were vastly superior, with its lucrative and enduring cable carriage fees (it turns out that 2000 was just about the peak of pay TV, with around 100 million homes paying for cable or satellite), and its robust advertising business.

CNN’s unparalleled strengths: Its vast newsgathering resources, its ubiquity on TV sets in the U.S. and around the world, and its sterling reputation among consumers, led to an idea at the time that intrigued executives at Viacom, which had acquired CBS in 1999: A merger of CNN and CBS News.

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