Apple Invests in Original Podcasts With the Potential to Adapt into TV+ Shows

[MacRumors]

Apple has stepped up its investment in original podcast content by signing an agreement with Pulitzer Prize-winning production company Futuro Studios, Bloomberg reports.

The deal with Futuro Studios, maker of the criminal-justice series "Suave," stipulates that Apple will fund development and production of podcasts, and then have the first option to turn them into a film or TV show for its Apple TV+ service.

Apple has ramped up its podcast production output over the past couple of years, generating spinoffs of some of its original television and movie content, such as the "For All Mankind" podcast, but also seeking to purchase original podcast programs that could tie into future TV+ shows.

Apple has discussed similar arrangements with other podcast production studios and spent up to $10 million on the push so far, according to Bloomberg. Apple has already financed a handful of popular podcasts, including true crime series "Hooked" and "The Line," with several tied in some way to its TV shows.

Apple is said to be using the podcast investment strategy as a relatively risk-free method of gauging interest in the material to determine whether it could become the foundation for a video series. The approach means Apple avoids having to spend potentially significantly more money to acquire rights to an established podcast in order to turn it into original video programming.

Apple's low-key plans contrast with Spotify's high-spending strategy of acquiring already-popular podcasts and making them exclusive to its streaming service. Spotify has been making inroads in the podcasting market over the course of the last few years, ramping up its original podcast offerings and making major acquisitions, as well as scoring key deals such as the rights to the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast.

Article Link: Apple Invests in Original Podcasts With the Potential to Adapt into TV+ Shows

 

[heinzdembowski]

I hope this exclusivity **** being pulled by megacorps leads to a renaissance in piracy.

 

[incoherent_1]

 

[incoherent_1]

I hope this exclusivity **** being pulled by megacorps leads to a renaissance in piracy.

My personal favorite is subscribing to a content provider and not getting certain exclusive content they own because of inept region filtering.

For example, I subscribed to Prime to watch The Boys and it wasn't published as available in our region even though Amazon owns exclusive global distribution rights for it.

 

[Mac Fly (film)]

I don’t know if it’s any indication about Spotify but my niece was getting Apple Music for free on family plan and she switched over to pay for Spotify out of her own money. She and all of her friend use Spotify now. Western Europe.

Apple should have acquired MGM and HBO for a large excellent back catalogue TV Show and Movie library and partnered with the likes of Criterion to diversify their modern streaming content from the herd of streaming services and for potential future gems. They should have announced all of this content at once priced at $9.99 per month alongside an OLED AIO Apple Television hardware product with excellent quality soundbar and excellent first party game controller, along with a $10B investment in AAA gaming to complete Apple’s living room approach.

And if not that, they should have stayed out of the movie and TV Show business entirely and focused on software quality and building great hardware. Their visual entertainment content is mostly mediocre and largely a distraction. But they could still make that $10B investment in AAA gaming, produce a great first party gaming controller to show gaming devs how serious they are and build that real hardware OLED Television competitor with excellent built in soundbar to have a legit living room product everyone wants. Others can bring all the streaming apps, allowing Apple to focus more on OS, UI and hardware and gaming experience.

 

[steve09090]

Hooked was excellent. Project Unabom was even better.

 

[Expos of 1969]

I don’t know if it’s any indication about Spotify but my niece was getting Apple Music for free on family plan and she switched over to pay for Spotify out of her own money. She and all of her friend use Spotify now. Western Europe.

Apple should have acquired MGM and HBO for a large excellent TV Show and Movie library and partnered with the likes of Criterion to diversify their modern streaming content from the herd of streaming services and for potential future gems.


Or if not that they should have stayed out of the movie and TV Show business entirely and focused on software quality and building great hardware. There stuff is mostly mediocre and largely a distraction.

I live in northern Europe and nobody I know (including their kids who range from 12 to 45) uses Apple Music.

 

[polyphenol]

There is some irony in this approach which is apparent from looking at the history of BBC programs.

Several television programs transferred quite successfully to radio.

And several transfers from radio to television were disappointing or dreadful.

 

[carlsson]

I live in northern Europe and nobody I know (including their kids who range from 12 to 45) uses Apple Music.

We are some. But not as many as Spotifiers...
I think it's mostly because:
a - Spotify came first, and it was a really good product from the start.
b - The first iteration of AM was a disaster.

Personally I have used both, but AM is really good these days so I have used that the last couple of years (since they rebuilt it from scratch, I don't remember when).

Both products are excellent, if you ask me.

 

[Expos of 1969]

We are some. But not as many as Spotifiers...
I think it's mostly because:
a - Spotify came first, and it was a really good product from the start.
b - The first iteration of AM was a disaster.

Personally I have used both, but AM is really good these days so I have used that the last couple of years (since they rebuilt it from scratch, I don't remember when).

Both products are excellent, if you ask me.

When living in Canada prior to moving to Europe I was not aware of Spotify. I used iTunes until 2018 and then started using Apple Music. I have used both Apple Music and paid Spotify (with some cancellations every so often) for the past three years or so.

It is extremely frustrating and really turns me off Apple that they can't be bothered to make it work smoothly on their own expensive hardware such as my M1 MacBook Air. It works better on my Samsung phone than on my Mac. Simply no excuse for that.

 

[jamcgahey]

I don’t know if it’s any indication about Spotify but my niece was getting Apple Music for free on family plan and she switched over to pay for Spotify out of her own money. She and all of her friend use Spotify now. Western Europe.

I think this depends on the friends group. My little sister is in college (I'm the much older brother) I have the family premier apple one plan. I offered my sister, who had been using spotify for several years, to come onto my plan. She took up the offer and prefers the service over Spotify. She even converted most her friend group over to it.

It comes down to preference IMHO. Each service has it's pros and cons and you'll always get that person that will just go to battle over arguing one or the other is better. They are both good.

 

[jamcgahey]

When living in Canada prior to moving to Europe I was not aware of Spotify. I used iTunes until 2018 and then started using Apple Music. I have used both Apple Music and paid Spotify (with some cancellations every so often) for the past three years or so.

It is extremely frustrating and really turns me off Apple that they can't be bothered to make it work smoothly on their own expensive hardware such as my M1 MacBook Air. It works better on my Samsung phone than on my Mac. Simply no excuse for that.

This is my biggest gripe. Obviously Apple is a hardware company first, but they have always been known for producing incredible products. I just wish that sentiment was reflected in their software (outside of OS) as well.

 

[L92]

It's baffling how they can not figure out how to play content on their Podcast or Music app continuously between their own devices. With Spotify I can move to my Mac and pickup where I left off, or continue on my iPhone in an instance. That's not the case with Apple software, it doesn't sync instantly. That's the only reason I use Spotify, which is pricier somewhat, but it's just so much more convenient.

 

[ghostface147]

Podcast app isn’t good. Can’t even watch a video podcast without it freezing or audio getting out of sync when fast forwarding.

 

[velocityg4]

I hope this exclusivity **** being pulled by megacorps leads to a renaissance in piracy.

Did piracy ever die down enough? To need a renaissance.

 

[scottishwildcat]

Meh. I can't think of any podcasts that have made a successful transition to TV, let alone movies.

 

[SoldOnApple]

> Apple has discussed similar arrangements with other podcast production studios and spent up to $10 million on the push so far

Meanwhile, Spotify spent over $200 million on Joe Rogan alone..

 

[SoldOnApple]

We are some. But not as many as Spotifiers...
I think it's mostly because:
a - Spotify came first, and it was a really good product from the start.
b - The first iteration of AM was a disaster.

Also Spotify was free. People love free so much that they even put up with obnoxious ads in between every second song when playing music at house parties. Apple at least has their live radio stations for free, which honestly play a good mix of music and 99% of my paid Apple Music subscription is spent on listening to those stations which I could have listened to for free.

 

[w5jck]

So Apple wants to turn podcasts into super-boring TV shows? No wonder I can't find but a few decent shows to watch on CrApple TV+. Garbage in, garbage out...as they say.

 

[Mysteriousone]

Podcasts are exploding in popularity.

Apple had 100% of the market and their complacency dropped them to around 40%.

Now they’re scrambling against others who stepped up to the plate.

Biggest facepalm moments:
Not paying for podcast exclusivity sooner.

Removing podcasts from iTunes/Music and into its own app.

Renaming the service “Apple Podcasts”
🤦‍♀️ 🤦‍♂️ 🤦

Apple went from the podcast company to “just another me-too Apple company”

The name change is like changing iPhone to “Apple Smartphone”.

 

[Mysteriousone]

I hope this exclusivity **** being pulled by megacorps leads to a renaissance in piracy.

Rationalizing your criminal behavior.

 

[CarlJ]

I hope this exclusivity **** being pulled by megacorps leads to a renaissance in piracy.

So when you don't like the price an item is offered for in a store, you advocate shoplifting?

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Did piracy ever die down enough? To need a renaissance.

I think it did quite a bit in the mid-2010s because of how cheap and simple it was to use streaming apps, just like the effect iTunes had on music back in the 2000s. A lot of people who used to torrent just got Netflix. Piracy will inevitably come back though, because companies are always going to be too greedy for their own good.

 

[CarlJ]

Piracy will inevitably come back though, because companies are always going to be too greedy for their own good.

The proper response to "this media costs too much" is always to choose not to watch and/or listen to that media, not to steal it instead.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

The proper response to "this media costs too much" is always to choose not to watch and/or listen to that media, not to steal it instead.

Not that I don’t agree with you, but people can be greedy too. If piracy is easy enough and the risks are low people will turn to it once they can’t justify the cost of legitimate sources anymore.