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After years of preparation, they run around just one week before the big premier
and beg HBO and Showtime to get onboard.
Yeah, you can see how "professional" they are LOL

It happens! It’s called negotiating tactics, a lot of this happens in an attempt to run down the clock in order to get a better deal on something.
 
There's really only a very limited amount of time everybody can and will spend in front of whatever screen after work.

That time does not increase and as such, companies are fighting for market-share like booze-companies have done so for years.

It's a bit puzzling as to why exactly Apple wants to be in this market to begin with - but I realize that collecting "rent" from users is a big thing right now.

For me, Apple News might be more interesting - though I don't have high hopes that it will be a "global" service in that you can read a US magazine even if you're not living in the US. Nor that it will likely launch at all here in the new future.
Buying a US magazine at a retail outlet here (or even one from Germany, just across the border, is almost absurdly expensive. There's a sizable profit in there, so I doubt the publishers would be OK with that.
 
I guess content owners do not want to get ripped like app developers, and they do not want to give Apple a 30% cut just for distribution.

I am happy with Netflix, can care less about Apple content. They should focus on making better products, which they forgot long time ago.
 
There's really only a very limited amount of time everybody can and will spend in front of whatever screen after work.

That time does not increase and as such, companies are fighting for market-share like booze-companies have done so for years.

It's a bit puzzling as to why exactly Apple wants to be in this market to begin with - but I realize that collecting "rent" from users is a big thing right now.

For me, Apple News might be more interesting - though I don't have high hopes that it will be a "global" service in that you can read a US magazine even if you're not living in the US. Nor that it will likely launch at all here in the new future.
Buying a US magazine at a retail outlet here (or even one from Germany, just across the border, is almost absurdly expensive. There's a sizable profit in there, so I doubt the publishers would be OK with that.

Probably the same reason they wanted to be in the music streaming business, which they are doing well in.

This will all come down to content, have they got enough and signed up enough studios. At the moment we just don’t know the answer to that question.
 
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Tim Cook sure loves these recurring subscription fees. Unfortunately that sort of service often can't be differentiated from other companies and since other companies are willing to harvest your data and sell it (which most people are oblivious to) they can do the same thing for cheaper

That is exactly the reason I’m willing to pay apple more for the same thing. I don’t care for letting companies profit off my usage. It might be benign but it’s disturbing to me so I avoid those services.
 
That is exactly the reason I’m willing to pay apple more for the same thing. I don’t care for letting companies profit off my usage. It might be benign but it’s disturbing to me so I avoid those services.

I agree, but to the average joe they will spend $8.99 a month vs 9.99 a month all day long so it has the potential to be a race to the bottom which Apple never really has interest in participating in. Also it gives content creators some control over Apples bottom line which is not a good thing either
 
Man I hope nobody rushes to judgement on price, content, throws the word 'innovation' around, all prior to any announcement or concrete news of any sort... oh wait
 
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The regulatory implications of opening its own bank would be pretty overwhelming and open apple up to a lot of risk. Just imagine when some random president starts using it to launder money from foreign governments. Or the bad press when they have to foreclose on some grandma’s loan.
Some random president? Seriously? That's the reason why Apple shouldn't do it? What about if some random president starts using an Apple iPhone to tweet some crazy stuff at 3:30 AM. Wait, I think it's happened a couple of times.

As for a grandma's loan, this would be a totally online bank. Grandmas don't do online banking. Additionally, an online bank doesn't have to be involved in mortgages.
 
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I have HBO but can't remember when was the last time I was on that channel just to watch a show, just any show. I also have Showtime and it has a few shows I watch over there. Starz, what's that? For now, I'll wait and see what Apple willannounce and I hope Tim won't say "It's the best TV streaming service and News subscription ever!".
 
Apple is all dressed up with no place to go here. They are battling two globally ensconced incumbents in Netflix and Amazon, and two brand behemoths in Disney and AT&T. Apple is obviously scrambling not to utterly blow it on March 25, but in the longer run, they don't need deals with HBO, Showtime and Starz, they need to own those brands and have an exclusive on them. Well they won't get HBO because AT&T has that, but they could buy CBS and get Showtime in addition to some other good stuff, and buy Lionsgate for Starz.

What matters now is simple: exclusive control of big brands. Apple needs to focus focus focus on that. Most of the big brands are owned by Disney and AT&T, which won't let them go. But Comcast has some pretty fair brands, and their streaming dreams will probably not work out. Apple needs to go on a big fat shopping spree now.
 
Project cookie would be the more interesting thing, but US only of course.

Reminded me of this lol

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excuse-me-america-first-22087548

excuse-me-america-first-22087548
 
Everyone saying Apple will fail - I'm not so sure they will. After all, Netflix leads that market and they are pretty trash. They paid for 5 far-past-prime Adam Sandler movies. NOTHING Apple could do is worse than that.
 
Why would I want to pay for a streaming service by Apple when even the apps are extremely censored and limited?

Many people watch about 10 different series and a few movies per month.
If these people had to do it the 'legal' way they would be paying at least 50,- per month.
No service out there offers the complete package that they're interested in.
So the amount in total that people would have to pay is just way too expensive.

The fact there still isn't such a platform (in a legal way) kinda proofs the point the industry thinks more about getting money in the bank or has no clue how to fix this important issue. If Apple doesn't tackle this than guess what.. Most people will just stick to using one service and download the rest from torrent sites etc.

Also the whole tracking stuff behind these service platforms are concerning..
 
I keep thinking of Microsoft in the 90s when they entered any field where someone else started to get a foothold because they might lose out. When Grolier Encyclopedia CD-ROMs became a thing, Microsoft had to come out with Encarta.

Does the world need one more way to get HBO?

iTunes and the iTunes Music Store were a real contribution.

Apple Pay is as well.

But not Apple Music. And except for original programming, which is just a way to lock people into your service rather than the plethora of other choices, I don't anticipate them doing anything interesting in video.

It's just to be in that space.

I think the industry is more interesting when everyone does what they're best at rather than trying to do everything. I don't think you can argue there is some hole in the television market that's being unmet, just like there wasn't in music streaming before Apple Music.
Disagree about Apple Music; delivering music has been part of Apple’s DNA for a very long time. Agree completely that Apple is out of their wheelhouse with television (even though Jobs wanted it). Then again Amazon once was a way to buy books, and now they’re making TV shows and operating high end supermarkets. Recent reports of Apple leadership micromanaging production don’t sound too promising. We’ll see what happens.
 
Is this rumored to have any live streaming TV or not?

(like...is this supposed to compete with YouTubeTV, Sling, DTVnow, PS Vue, etc?)
 
Everyone saying Apple will fail - I'm not so sure they will. After all, Netflix leads that market and they are pretty trash. They paid for 5 far-past-prime Adam Sandler movies. NOTHING Apple could do is worse than that.

Netflix took years, is on every platform available, and is barely over a 100 mil subs. Apple won’t get close to that. Heck every tv remote has a Netflix button on it.

Services can mean a lot of things. This doesn’t have to be one of them. Heck it’s google’s payments to Apple plus it’s warranty AppleCare that leads services growth. Apple Music is but a dent. How about software? It’s up to Apple to find innovative ways to grow services. This video thing isn’t that.
 
Netflix took years, is on every platform available, and is barely over a 100 mil subs. Apple won’t get close to that. Heck every tv remote has a Netflix button on it.

Services can mean a lot of things. This doesn’t have to be one of them. Heck it’s google’s payments to Apple plus it’s warranty AppleCare that leads services growth. Apple Music is but a dent. How about software? It’s up to Apple to find innovative ways to grow services. This video thing isn’t that.
But Netflix produces trash though. It just doesn't take a lot of effort to be better.
 
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I don't really understand why people want or need need HBO, Stars, etc. bundled into other packages. Especially since from what I've seen there is no discount for it, you still pay the full price of the service. Why not just pay separate, then you can easily cancel just that service separately. Installing the HBO Go app is really easy and chances are you're going to end up watching stuff through multiple apps anyway (HBO Go, Netflix, Prime Video, soon Disney, etc.). Only way I would go for it is if there was a discount offered for bundling, like $10/mo. for HBO or something.
 
I don't really understand why people want or need need HBO, Stars, etc. bundled into other packages. Especially since from what I've seen there is no discount for it, you still pay the full price of the service. Why not just pay separate, then you can easily cancel just that service separately. Installing the HBO Go app is really easy and chances are you're going to end up watching stuff through multiple apps anyway (HBO Go, Netflix, Prime Video, soon Disney, etc.). Only way I would go for it is if there was a discount offered for bundling, like $10/mo. for HBO or something.

Not to mention the fact that HBO may be on its way getting totally ruined as time goes on here thanks to AT&T.

I’m glad it is separated out so that I can cancel my HBO NOW subscription as soon as I get the first indication of AT&T screwing the pooch.
 
Disagree about Apple Music; delivering music has been part of Apple’s DNA for a very long time. Agree completely that Apple is out of their wheelhouse with television (even though Jobs wanted it). Then again Amazon once was a way to buy books, and now they’re making TV shows and operating high end supermarkets. Recent reports of Apple leadership micromanaging production don’t sound too promising. We’ll see what happens.
I'd add that Microsoft in the 90s, was never as big as Apple is today.
 
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