The Atlanta Journal reported today that CNN that will start offering its Pipeline service for free starting June 1. CNN had been selling the service for $25/year, $2.95/month, or $.99/day. As CNN is not disclosing subscriber numbers you can assume there were few. The only time they pulled in any sizable numbers were on days when they opened it up for free. To bolster their new free offering CNN entered into a pact with Internet Broadcasting Systems to offer local content in about 70 MSAs.

I have seen lots of primary and secondary consumer research on pay for content Internet services. With few exceptions that you would want to tell your mother about, consumers are not willing to pay for Internet content. I don’t know how many people I have heard say in focus groups/surveys/online “I can find it somewhere for free”.

And that they can.