Apple No Longer Plans to Debut New Apple TV+ Content at SXSW Due to Coronavirus Concerns

[MacRumors]

Apple was planning to participate in the SXSW 2020 Film Festival to premiere new original content coming to Apple TV+, but will no longer do so because of concerns about the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak in the United States and other countries, reports Variety.

Apple in January announced that upcoming Apple TV+ content "Home," "Central Park," and "Beastie Boys Story" would be shown at the SXSW Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place from March 13 to March 21. There was also supposed to be a "Little America" discussion panel with series creators Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon.

Many other companies along with Apple have pulled out of SXSW, including Amazon Studios, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Panasonic, SAP, and Intel. Despite the circulation of a Change.org petition calling for SXSW to be canceled and the fact that many major companies don't plan to attend, SXSW organizers say the festival will still take place.

SXSW typically attracts more than 100,000 people from around the world, and will be the biggest event not canceled in the wake of the coronavirus.

Article Link: Apple No Longer Plans to Debut New Apple TV+ Content at SXSW Due to Coronavirus Concerns

 

[AnnoyedCarrot]

but what does this mean for the new iPad???

 

[DEXTERITY]

Cancel it, you idiots.

 

[12643]

I feel like this whole service won’t survive more than a year, the shows offered are quite pathetic and there is no sign of either quality or quantity of content improving any time soon.

 

[matty.p]

I feel like this whole service won’t survive more than a year, the shows offered are quite pathetic and there is no sign of either quality or quantity of content improving any time soon.

They’re increasing the production budget and building a brand new Apple TV+ headquarters in Culver City it’s not going anywhere.

 

[dannyyankou]

Good, SXSW should be cancelled altogether. And we should postpone concerts and sporting events for the near future, but Americans hate disruption 🙄

 

[nfl46]

I feel like this whole service won’t survive more than a year, the shows offered are quite pathetic and there is no sign of either quality or quantity of content improving any time soon.

It's not going anywhere. Don't worry, 5 years from now, someone will quote your post and call you out on this. Lol.

 

[Ar40]

It's not going anywhere. Don't worry, 5 years from now, someone will quote your post and call you out on this. Lol.

Yeah. I'm going to screenshot these posts for my grandchildren to laugh at.
[automerge]1583374359[/automerge]
This def. had something to do with the fact that Kumail Nanjiani's wife, Emily Gordon, has an autoimmune disorder and she is someone potentially threatened by her husband attending this and potentially contracting Coronavirus. Apple would have had to cancel at least that panel. Smart to not put any added pressure on him and instead canceled the whole thing. I hope we can get those previews in some other format (Heck, have Tim Cook pull a Nintendo and do a pre-taped "Apple Direct" and I'll be more than happy).

for reference:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1235376613308551170

 

[Baymowe335]

I feel like this whole service won’t survive more than a year, the shows offered are quite pathetic and there is no sign of either quality or quantity of content improving any time soon.

And you would Be wrong.

 

[cmaier]

I feel like this whole service won’t survive more than a year, the shows offered are quite pathetic and there is no sign of either quality or quantity of content improving any time soon.

You are entitled to feel that way, but you are wrong.

Mythic Quest is fantastic, for example. For All Mankind is very good. More is coming (Foundation, etc.)

 

[BornAgainMac]

I had already forgot about Apple TV content.

 

[nutmac]

I feel like this whole service won’t survive more than a year, the shows offered are quite pathetic and there is no sign of either quality or quantity of content improving any time soon.

640K is more memory than anyone will ever need on a computer.

Next Christmas, the iPod will be dead, finished, gone, kaput.

There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share.

 

[dwhittington]

Haven’t paid much attention honestly, but how many bands are still performing elsewhere leading up to SXSW? If they don’t cancel the event... it could just fall apart. Or maybe the same crowd of consumers that rushed to the store to stockpile water and hand sanitizer didn’t get in on SXSW tickets this year. Time will tell.

 

[randian]

What does a virus, at whatever level of lethality, have to do with releasing entertainment content?

 

[kmj2318]

SXSW is virtually canceled. Like GDC, when they big attendees cancel, the shows have no choice but to cancel.

 

[scupking]

I got an iPad in November and don’t have a reason to even check out Apple TV for free for a year. I’m happy with Netflix, Amazon, the Disney+ package with espn+ and Hulu, Pluto tv, YouTube and over the air antenna. I had sling tv for years and liked it until they slowly started raising the price. Once that happened I canceled.

 

[itsmilo]

What does a virus, at whatever level of lethality, have to do with releasing entertainment content?

it’s a fair ... to announce new stuff ... so people aren’t going to the fair in fear of catching the corona virus. Easy as that

 

[RalfTheDog]

Sorry again about the merged post. I was planning to fly out to New Zealand this year for Worldcon. At this point, that would be a very silly, stupid thing to do. Travel if you must, but stay away from large groups of people.

 

[Reason077]

”20 times more deadly than the flu” has been thrown around constantly.

Tell that to H1N1, which killed between 3 and 6% of the entire world’s population during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920. Flu can be very deadly.

 

[fairuz]

Tell that to H1N1, which killed between 3 and 6% of the entire world’s population during the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918-1920. Flu can be very deadly.

Flu can be deadly, but that was also 1918-1920, not 2020. Lately it's been a lot less deadly. The high death rate of this coronavirus isn't the only reason to care; we're in the containment stage because we have a chance to stop it that we'll never have again.

 

[Reason077]

The fatality rates are much higher than originally projected; It is at 3.6% and climbing.

Remember that the mortality rate is 3.6% of those diagnosed. Given Covid-19’s ability to rapidly spread, there must be large numbers of people carrying the virus who are asymptomatic or who have only mild illness.

Most of those will never be diagnosed, as testing is only done if you show up with certain serious symptoms.

 

[fairuz]

Remember that the mortality rate is 3.6% of those diagnosed. Given Covid-19’s ability to rapidly spread, there must be large numbers of people carrying the virus who are asymptomatic or who have only mild illness.

Most of those will never be diagnosed, as testing is only done if you show up with certain serious symptoms.

This is a good point that I've not yet seen brought up. You're counting those who were infected but not tested. I still doubt that's a large number because otherwise this would be spreading incredibly quickly in a way we'd detect, at least by how many people suddenly have fevers.

 

[Reason077]

Now I’m not defending the possible risk from having a Vaccine, just highlighting how viruses can and do kill, it’s not flippant it’s hard fact.

If anything good comes out of Covid-19, perhaps it will be to highlight how stupid and irresponsible the anti-vaxxers are.

If there was a vaccine available for Covid-19, would you get it? Because there are diseases which are just as deadly making a comeback due to people’s failure to correctly evaluate the tiny risk of a vaccine against the much greater risk of not having a vaccine.

 

[Reason077]

It's 34X as deadly. Coronavirus death rate so far has been 3.4%, and that's trusting the likely lower-than-reality China numbers. Flu is 0.1% on average.

You have to remember that actual infection rates are far higher than the number of confirmed cases. Only severe cases actually get tested and confirmed.

The way it spreads so rapidly, half the population of Wuhan has probably been infected at some point. A couple thousand deaths doesn’t look so bad out of a population of 11 million people.

 

[Reason077]

This is a good point that I've not yet seen brought up. You're counting those who were infected but not tested. I still doubt that's a large number because otherwise this would be spreading incredibly quickly in a way we'd detect, at least by how many people suddenly have fevers.

A good example would be the outbreak on the Royal Princess cruise ship. The virus spread rapidly there, and has killed 6, who all were elderly and had pre-existing health conditions.

Everyone on board was tested and over 700 tested positive for Covid-19. But many of those who tested positive had no symptoms and didn’t even know they were ill. Some have gone on to develop mild or moderate symptoms, but many would never have known they were infected if they hadn’t been tested.