Apple Reportedly Exploring Producing Original TV Shows

[Amazing Iceman]

This is a great idea, as it will benefit us all.

It will generate new jobs for many people.
It will also expand Apple's footprint.
It will also mean that Pro Apps (FCP, Motion, Logic Pro, etc) , will continue to evolve.
And who knows, maybe new apps related to this industry may come to existence thanks to this project.

And why not produce their own content? Many competitors are already doing it.

 

[Gasu E.]

netflix i'm a fan of, because content is their business and their focus.

apple is starting to make everything its business, which i'm sure can be a successful model as demonstrated by companies like google and samsung, but its the opposite of what apple used to be. reminds me of this tidbit:

http://www.cultofmac.com/286442/steve-jobs-told-google-much-stuff/

I agree some and disagree. I'm highly dubious about Apple getting into cars-- huge economies of scale, which means it will take a huge chunk out of that cash mountain to get serious. Media, on the other hand, requires much less capital to get into. Apple could easily throw $2B (peanuts for ) into media and become a player.

 

[Gasu E.]

I don't think we need new content, I think we need to consolidate how we get current content - and on our terms.

How about both?

 

[GenesisST]

Apple, Google and Amazon are turning into OCP...

 

[Amazing Iceman]

Now Apple is going to brag they invented "movie making". What I see is a company running out of ideas and innovation in computing and they are trying other fields to keep investors distracted.

Almost there. They will brag that they "revolutionized movie making".
And Apple could never run out of ideas. This is just one project by one of Apple's teams.

Do you think the military would be interested in partnering with Apple if they didn't have anything worth for them?
Apple's R&D is huge! Not all projects may see light of day now, but in the future, who knows.

 

[Gasu E.]

Well... Disney may own Pixar, but Disney is NOT Pixar. They have managed to keep a clear distinction between the two companies over the years. Although they are financially linked, their products are very different. I personally think Pixar>Disney though.

Lasseter is creative head of ALL animation at Disney, not just Pixar.

 

[Popeye206]

It's been proven over and over again, that great content will bring sales... look at Halo for Xbox, or Game of Thrones, or the Saprano's for HBO... Halo made the Xbox a must have game device, and Game of Thrones is attracting HBO customers like crazy.

I see it as inevitable... They should just team up with their close cousin Disney and get some exclusives going there. If they had the exclusive to new Star Wars content or even the classic Disney content, Apple TV's would fly off the shelf.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Netflix made the Disney deal a few years ago: http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/02/15/netflix-and-disney-this-is-only-the-beginning.aspx And, in case you are wondering about the costs involved, this article http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/04/netflix-disney_n_2238578.html gives us some estimates. Such deals are out there if Apple wants to open it's wallet and outbid competitors. Content owners simply want to maximize their profits too.

 

[nathan43082]

Now with even more obvious Apple product placement.

 

[2457282]

Based on some of the comments posted, I would like to argue in both directions. First, I agree that Apple has not taken their services to the same level of "spit and polish" as their hardware. They need to continue to invest in improving services - most importantly is iCloud and iCloud drive. But you can run the gambit - Music, iWorks, Photos, Siri, Maps. Focus must be maintained on the original vision of doing a few things great.

The problem is that while they focus on what they already do, new things and opportunities come up. Should Apple simply miss the boat and hope to come late to the party and still be a disrupter. I think they certainly were (okay lets agree on will be) with Apple Pay. But with Music and streaming they were way too late and it will really take a while to be on par with the competition, but a disruptor I just don't see right now. I have no idea how real this rumor is, but I would say there is still an opportunity in this space to change the world. We are still beholden to the networks. Netflix, the king of the hill right now, has yet to break through the network. I cut my cable, but its not easy and you cant get any current content. With Amazon and Netflix starting to create their own programming, things are about to change. And here there is an opportunity.

Maybe this is like Beats and Apple buys out Netflix or more likely someone smaller like Hulu and builds on that. For me the key issue is that while they must be laser focused on existing lines to be the best, they should also continue to seek opportunities to disrupt new lines of business. Their attempt in the music space has not worked well (oh, they may still do fine. my point is that they have not disrupted anything, yet). If they decide to go into this business let's hope they really do Apple justice and find a way to disrupt. The first clue as to how well of a disruption they can achieve will be with the announcement of the new AppleTV which will be the platform that any service will center on.

 

[winston1236]

Apple is getting into everything these days. Do you all think they appear to have a solid game plan or are they just throwing things against the wall and seeing what sticks?

Military, music, automobiles, wearables, home automation...

If everything they are releasing was excellent I'd say solid plan. Since its not I think this may be a desperate plan to diversify away from iPhone dependence to keep up the share price. They may need to look closely at how Google restructured under Alphabet as its starting to make more sense.

 

[StoneJack]

Apple and Jeremy Clarkson? How would that work? Apple is so political correct and overly prude and Clakson is... the opposite

Exactly..thats the reason to hire Clarkson

 

[k1121j]

well this is interesting... this streaming thing is starting to look like it will cost the same as cable so then whats the point the difference being the networks are cutting out the middle man thus making more its not appealing to me at all so far weather its apple or paying 14.99 mo for HBO etc at this point ill stick with cable/sat until there is a good reason to move

 

[MacBH928]

Well, if they are making a car then why not a TV show? The problem with capitalism is that it has to continually grow forever. They can't just keep doing what they do best and gain billions in profit each year.... its not enough

 

[k1121j]

well this is interesting... this streaming thing is starting to look like it will cost the same as cable so then whats the point the difference being the networks are cutting out the middle man thus making more its not appealing to me at all so far weather its apple or paying 14.99 mo for HBO etc at this point ill stick with cable/sat until there is a good reason to move

oh wait the difference is this will force the cable ISP's to start charging for overages so in the end it will all cost more ;-/

 

[sirdir]

Exactly..thats the reason to hire Clarkson

And then ban him from screen because he doesn't stand for Apples values?

 

[jamescobalt]

Why do the big companies feel like they have to do ALL THE THINGS?
Have we learned nothing from Yahoo?

 

[rizzo41999]

To speak my mind, I'm not a fan of the company's recent moves. While entirely different companies, I'm getting a more "Google" vibe from Apple. What I mean by that is that Apple seems to want to put it's finger print on a lot of different industries, similarly to what Google does. While they have always done this (Music, Movies, Telecommunications) the recent moves seem less focused and profound. While they have the man power and capital to do it, something just doesn't feel right about it. In business terms, it makes complete sense and many will argue that they're doing the right thing consider profits and it's huge cash base. But something just feel very off in my opinion.

 

[Sonmi451]

Kim Kardashian makes a lot of money too, doesn't mean she's doing anything 'good, great'

She's not a publicly traded company. Try another analogy.

 

[TallManNY]

Yes and none of that means Apple needs to get into the content creation business. They're not doing it with Apple News, they don't need to do with with Apple TV.

Well Beats 1 and the curated lists of Apple Music is part of the way toward content creation. But the creation of video content is so far from Apple's core competencies that it becomes a distressing idea to even consider.

Really this is one of the concerns when Apple has so much money sitting around that it doesn't know what to do with. Dropping a few billion on a host of TV shows is very doable for Apple. But would entail hiring divisions of new people from a completely different culture. We are getting a taste of that with Apple Music and Beats 1. And it does seem pretty cool. But just putting out a few radio programs is different from hiring in-house pop stars.

NetFlix is closer to point of hiring in-house pop stars in that it is directly employing producers, directors and actors. But my view is that NetFlix is desperate to justify its stock price because it can't justify a $49 Billion valuation selling $10 per month subscriptions for content that it has to pay a market rate for competing against Hulu and the Cable Companies. And competing without the benefit of advertising revenue. Which is another area that Apple is also hamstrung.

 

[StoneJack]

And then ban him from screen because he doesn't stand for Apples values?

There are no Apple values

 

[StoneJack]

Well Beats 1 and the curated lists of Apple Music is part of the way toward content creation. But the creation of video content is so far from Apple's core competencies that it becomes a distressing idea to even consider.

Really this is one of the concerns when Apple has so much money sitting around that it doesn't know what to do with. Dropping a few billion on a host of TV shows is very doable for Apple. But would entail hiring divisions of new people from a completely different culture. We are getting a taste of that with Apple Music and Beats 1. And it does seem pretty cool. But just putting out a few radio programs is different from hiring in-house pop stars.

NetFlix is closer to point of hiring in-house pop stars in that it is directly employing producers, directors and actors. But my view is that NetFlix is desperate to justify its stock price because it can't justify a $49 Billion valuation selling $10 per month subscriptions for content that it has to pay a market rate for competing against Hulu and the Cable Companies. And competing without the benefit of advertising revenue. Which is another area that Apple is also hamstrung.

Its very easy, easier than make iPads and iPhones, generally. Hiring people is also easy but even then you don't have to hire them, you have to produce, that's entirely different business, similar to getting developers make products for your products. Same logic.

 

[cjc2104]

This is a fantastic idea. Honestly, it is all about content and too many services have overlapping movies, shows, etc. Netflix has really disrupted the original content producing environment where pilots and market studies were traditionally done and instead just produce an entire season and release it at one time. I think Apple should follow this model, they have the money to take some failures... really only upside here... With a solid package of core networks (ABC, Fox, TBS, NBC, etc. etc. and if they can swing Disney which they should and get ESPN) and add a few series of good original content they can capture a good chunk of the market beyond Apple fanboys and be a competitor

 

[mripah]

What if it's similar to Apple Music and they just call it Apple TV. You pay a monthly fee and can stream their entire TV and Movie catalog.

 

[TallManNY]

Netflix distribution centers and logistics can integrate pretty well with the Apple stores supply chain and make significant savings and improvements for both services. The only problem will be that Apple will kill all the discs business no DVD or BluRay for YOU, leaving all this business open to RedBox, me don't like it!

Don't worry. Apple will never tank its EPS by buying a company as unprofitable and huge as NetFlix. It is never going to happen. And except for the NetFlix original programming Apple has much better content available to it already on iTunes. And it has customers willing to pay cash per show for that content. iTunes video sales probably makes Apple more profit every month than NetFlix makes all year.

I think the future is that the streaming all you can eat services will continue to live on Apple TV. You the consumer will browse for a show or movie. If the show or movie is available on two services that you already subscribe to you can decide between renting the ad-free one from Apple or watching one with ads on Hulu. Most stuff will only be available on one ad supported version and the ad-free one from Apple bought individually (or some other premium service like HBO and possibly Apple with a fairly high monthly fee). My guess is that NetFlix's catalog is going to diminish in size and the best stuff remaining will be their occasional self produced hit.