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Apple has hired Tim Connolly, a Hollywood executive with experience at Disney, Hulu, and Quibi, for Apple TV, according to The Telegraph.

TimConnollyVarietyEntertainmentTechnologyN_0L5rR1qg3l.jpg


Connolly was vice-president of digital distribution and new product development at Disney. He was one of the most senior executives at streaming startup Quibi, running partnerships and advertising, but he vacated the role before the video service launched earlier this year. Connolly also helped to launch Hulu's live TV service, which involved striking deals with other major networks. Similarly, he oversaw a deal between Spotify and Hulu to bundle their services.

Connolly's exact role at Apple is as yet unknown, but it seems likely that he will be involved in brokering deals for Apple TV's Channels feature. The Apple TV app allows users to buy and watch third-party streaming services directly within the app, but support has been limited thus far. Apple began selling subscriptions to combined services last month, with a bundle including CBS All Access and Showtime, for an overall lower price of $9.99. This move and the hiring of Connolly may indicate that Apple is planning to launch more similar bundles and bolster Apple TV Channels.

Given Connolly's experience in bundling services, it is also possible that he is involved in launching Apple's upcoming "Apple One" subscription service bundles. The series of bundles would allow customers to subscribe to several Apple digital services, such as Apple Music and Apple TV+, together. This is expected to result in a lower monthly price than when the services are subscribed to individually.

Apple did not respond to The Telegraph's request for comment. Connolly's arrival at Apple is yet another indication that the company is heavily investing in its TV and subscription service enterprises.

Article Link: Apple Hires Former Disney, Hulu, and Quibi Executive for Apple TV
Apple needs to rethink their naming process on all of this. Device = Apple TV, app = Apple TV and service = Apple TV+. It becomes to annoying to follow sometimes.
 
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Wasting money on an executive instead of a better back catalog

Makes sense when you consider how TV+ is supposed to work. Use original content to draw people into the TV app and promote iTunes content for sale. Why offer a back catalog when you can get users to purchase their own curated library of back content?
 
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Makes sense when you consider how TV+ is supposed to work. Use original content to draw people into the TV app and promote iTunes content for sale. Why offer a back catalog when you can get users to purchase their own curated library of back content?

It’s not only iTunes contents but other channels. They just have a 50% discount for CBS All Acess+Showtimes, that you will need TV+ membership to subscribe. Great strategy. Personally I haven’t touched Netflix in a couple of months. My TV watchings currently are almost all in TV app.
 
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If I were Apple right now I would prefer to massively invest in R&D, fix the colossal embarrassment that is Siri, pull iOS out of the "iOS 7 but with bloat" annual cycle limbo, modernise the entire Mac family into a best-in-class computer lineup, fix the actual Apple TV, and totally spin off vanity pet projects like the streaming Apple TV.

Sure, it's cool and services are the future blah, but Apple's brand is built on a (walled) ecosystem of hardware and software that's supposed to "just work" and right now it kinda doesn't. Especially to all of us non-american customers, Apple TV is pure noise.

Yes, I know, product/dev budgets and streaming service budgets are not conflated, but at the end of the day which investment counts more in brand building and international ROI? Me thinks not the latter.
THIS COMMENT IS EXACTLY WHAT "SHOULD" HAPPEN, BUT IT WON'T... IMO, every popular streaming app is looking in the wrong direction when trying to figure it out. Every App, especially Apple, is to disorganized and overly complicated to most. They are all missing the point. Remember when the iPod released? Thats the "thinking" they need, but they are over-thinking it now.
 
Perhaps Apple should avoid hiring anyone from Quibi for a bit. Not the best endorsement whether they left the company before going public or not.

Also, which I will keep repeating, the biggest mistake Apple has made in the past 5 years was not buying Pluto TV. Had they acquired the company they would have been on every ecosystem from Fire TV, Roku, to Windows etc. But for some reason they didn't.
 
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I don’t understand the apple tv hate. I love several of the shows, find the app fine, and think its a value at the price. I guess to each is own, but dang
I feel like 90% of these “haters” really haven’t it given it a real shot. Maybe watch a few minutes of one or two shows and called it quits. (On day one when there were only a handful of shows).

It’s really grown up to be a great platform IMO. Many good shows, and almost all of the movies are amazing. They have to start from somewhere. I’d rather have a smaller selection of great content, rather than a myriad of mediocre. (Looking at you Netflix)
 
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His first challenge: fix the confusing naming mess between the app, the hardware and the service. It’s like they ran out of inspiration at some point.

Second challenge: roll out Channels internationally. A TV app with only 2 channels and a top menu with 2 buttons (Movies, Library) is pathetic.
 
Since Quibi went so well rofl!
You’re trying to pin Quibi’s crappiness on Connolly? 🤣 He left over a year ago. Do you think he was responsible for content?

According to Variety, at Quibi, Connolly had been in charge of business relationships with all partners including subscriber-acquisition partners (such app stores, mobile operators and music services); advertisers and agencies; tech partners; and promotional partners.
 
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Until Apple has an extensive catalogue such as the one Netflix has, I doubt they will ever be sucsessful. People are not only atracted by good original contest but also by the extensive library which is nice time-killer for the bugs you are paying. For a few dollars a month, Netflix provides you more content that you can watch in a lifetime.
 
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I feel like 90% of these “haters” really haven’t it given it a real shot. Maybe watch a few minutes of one or two shows and called it quits. (On day one when there were only a handful of shows).

It’s really grown up to be a great platform IMO. Many good shows, and almost all of the movies are amazing. They have to start from somewhere. I’d rather have a smaller selection of great content, rather than a myriad of mediocre. (Looking at you Netflix)
What is mediocre content for some, may be an enjoyable content for others. When your target audience is billions of people, you better have an extensive library for all sort of people and for every nationality, etnicity, religion, age, gender, etc. Apple TV+ should start growing at a higher rate and maybe in some years in could be on par with the audience other streaming services have. Original content is great and certaintly attract many people, but it is not enough. There are tons of movies, series, documentaries and shows that dont get an Emmy but I do enjoy a lot, so focusing only on tripple A content (which is what Apple appears to be doing), is not the best proposition for many millions of people.
 
Quibi is such a joke. As soon as I heard about it, I thought "This sounds like boomers desperately trying to reach zoomers and it's going to fail hard." I wish these companies would just consult with anyone who has common sense. Hundreds of millions wasted for no good reason. Could see it coming from miles away.
 
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I’m guessing Tim Cook doesn’t spend a lot of time each week dealing with apple tv’s lineup. At all.

And it’s not disingenuous - apple has said for the last several years, at every earnings call, that it expects services to make up a very large part of its revenues going forward, and the statistics bear that out. There will come a point where Apple will be a services company, not a hardware company, and at that point you’ll be thankful that those profits help fund R&D that otherwise might not happen.

"Services" covers a lot of stuff. The App Store makes a ton of money, but is under significant legal challenges. Challenges which will eventually limit Apple's ability to take its 30% cut. Maybe their TV service without any legacy IP (example Disney with Star Wars) can be a profit center. Basically Apple seems to want that department to become HBO. Pretty bold goals. But I suspect as of now it loses money with every show they produce. Even if those TV shows become profitable, I don't see how it can be profitable at a scale that will ever kick of billions of dollars a year to fund R&D.
 
Apple's core business has traditionally been hardware sales. They would take on non-hardware projects that were necessary to sell the hardware. This streaming content generation thing? Not sure what needs it addresses.
 
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