CNN hunts for audiences beyond cable. Weather app is part of that strategy.

The news organization has spent the last several years bolstering its digital offerings as revenues from its traditional cable business have declined. CNN All Access was its second swing at a subscription-based streaming service, launching three years after CNN+ was killed as a casualty of the megamerger that formed CNN’s current parent company Warner Bros. Discovery.

In a news release, Ben French, CNN’s senior vice president of new business, said the organization is creating a portfolio of lifestyle products “to help our audience navigate a complex world.”

Weather has long been a ratings and web traffic driver for news outlets. It is the only news topic followed often by most Americans, according to a 2024 study from the Pew Research Center. About two-thirds of U.S. adults say they often get news about local weather, double the share who often consume news about crime, the next most common topic.

CNN is not the first major cable news outlet to launch a standalone weather app. In 2021, Fox News invested more than $10 million into building Fox Weather, a 24-hour ad-supported streaming video channel that was also available as a mobile app. The service was also launched to pinpoint new revenue streams beyond cable television.

CNN Weather will face competition from other established mobile weather apps, including Fox Weather, The Weather Channel and Apple’s native weather app. But the organization has decades of experience in reporting on weather and climate-related events, both domestically and internationally.

In its current state, the app is not advertiser supported. CNN has found a launch sponsor in AWS, Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary, according to a news release announcing the app.