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It's likely extra free content for an Apple Music subscriber like myself. What's not to like?

Spotify subscribers... obviously...

When you do nothing, there’s nothing to criticize, it’s the same thing with Beats 1, Spotify radio is so much better because it doesn’t exist.
 
Fonzi Cook
 

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No need to be a copycat. There is plenty of original and compelling content, but from many scattered sources.

MY SAMPLE GUIDE:
  1. NBC (nbc.com): The Blacklist, Blindspot, Shades of Blue, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Timeless
  2. ABC (abc.go.com): Designated Survivor
  3. FOX (foxnow.com): Lethal Weapon, Rosewood
  4. Showtime (showtimeanytime.com): Billions, Ray Donovan, Homeland, Brotherhood
  5. HBO (hobo.com): Game of Thrones, Westworld, Deadwood, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Tracey Ullman’s Show, Ballers
  6. Starz (starz.com): Outlander, Black Sails
  7. TNT (tntdrama.com): Good Behavior, Animal Kingdom, The Last Ship
  8. Sundance Now (sundancenow.com): The Bureau
  9. USA (USANetwork.com): Shooter
  10. History (history.com): Vikings, SIX, Forged in Fire
  11. FX (fxnetworks.com): The Americans
  12. NBCSports (nbcsports.com): English Premier League (EPL)
  13. TV5Monde (usa.tv5monde.com): French Cinema/News/Documentaries
  14. Comedy Central (cc.com): South Park
 
I hope that Apple and Disney join forces now that they have pulled from Netflix. Exclusive First watches on new movies before or during a movie being in the theater plus the Disney catalog
 
$1B is like a drop in the bucket compared to what other streaming services are spending on original content. Why not just up the ante and use some of that $200B war chest to just buy out Netflix or some other service? Would seem like a better investment.

A really stupid investment.

Netflix P/E is over 200, so... 50 years to pay back it’s $77B market cap?

For that money, Tim Cook could dominate the Oscars for 100 years.
 
I keep hearing "that's not much compared to the competition".

Really? The most expensive Netflix original cost $130m per season but they tend to hover around $70m-80m and remember they've been in the game for a few years now and Apple haven't even started.

Apple wants 10 original shows with $1bn which averages at $100m per show per season, which is more than enough for a first year. If it's successful the budget will increase over time.
 
They should've done that about 3 years ago. They're reacting to the Netflix growth. Apple's strategy of trying to be 'everything for everybody' is not working.

What's not working? Apple's high market cap? Apple's huge profits? Apple's high product reliability and customer satisfaction? If Apple wants to spend some money trying out new things, what's wrong with that? It's a good way to grow you business. It's a smart move to encourage more ecosystem buy-in. Also, stock markets dislike companies that appear stagnant, even if they are hugely successful.

Maybe it will flop but it's a great area to invest in.
 
Nothing wrong with Apple jumping into the Original content fray. A good use of all their money.

They just need to be careful on a couple things:

1: The movie / Film industry isn't going to take any of Apple's typical ******** of trying to strong arm the industry to their profit / business model, like they did attempted with the eBook industry.

2: Get out of the idea that everything they produce must be "Apple" meta related. The Carpool karaoke and "Planet of the Apps" are not good quality productions. they may have been fun for some Apple exec's pet project, but that's not the way to mainstream production. Netflix didn't get to where they were by making shows about netflix and their bosses.
 
Company with $262b in offshore account spend $1b on new venture! Makes me wonder how serious they are about playing in this market. Based solely on the investment, I'm guessing not very serious.
 
Apple has earmarked $1 billion to acquire and produce original television content over the next year to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Apple is hoping its efforts in original programming will bolster the appeal of iTunes movie rentals and other offerings through the store. Last year, iTunes generated an estimated $4.1 billion in revenue, but its share of the movie rental-and-sales market has declined to less than 35 percent from 50 percent in 2012, according to the report.

This is honestly a slippery slope. If Apple produces too much content and gain too much traction in the market, third parties (Viacom (CBS All Access) / Comcast (NBC Universal / Hulu) / AT&T (HBO, Directv)) won't want to bolster their competition (Apple) with their content. Look at what happened with Netflix and Disney. It's a bit different with the iTunes store since they're still selling the content but they still need to reach licensing agreements to sell the content and I remember when NBC pulled all their content from iTunes in 2007 to bolster Hulu & NBC Direct (whatever the f that was).
 
Throwing money at the job doesn't guarantee success. Apple will have to up their game considerable based upon their existing efforts.
 
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I hope that Apple and Disney join forces now that they have pulled from Netflix. Exclusive First watches on new movies before or during a movie being in the theater plus the Disney catalog

I see what's in it for viewers and Apple. What's in it for Disney?

Note: back in 2012 when the Netflix Disney deal was struck, there was belief that Netflix had agreed to pay about $300 MILLION per year for that deal. If true, fast forward to 2017 and obviously whatever was the actual amount is no longer enough for Disney. So how much does Apple need to pay to strike this deal?

Note2: the Netflix deal did not include getting to see new movies before and during their theatrical runs, so how much more does Apple pay for that option too?

Disney is looking to start it's own service. And why not? They do have highly desirable content and a very deep catalog. What's potentially in it for them? Looking at a niche service as a proxy: WWE "channel" recently announced they were nearly 2 million subscribers deep. A subscription there can cost between $10 and $13/month depending on if one is willing to commit to more than a month-to-month engagement. 2 million subscribers times- say- $11.50 = $23 Million/month = $276 Million/yr. WWE is not sharing that revenue with an entity like Netflix. Instead, it's their own.

Can a Disney offering draw more business than a niche offering like WWE? That seems likely. Is about $11.50 out of line for a Disney offering? No- personally, I suspect Disney will price it at about HBO levels, or about $15/month.

How many subscribers can Disney draw? Looking at the rumored Netflix number of $300M, $300M/($15*12) = approx. 1,667,000 subscribers. In short, to make the $300M at $15/month, Disney needs to acquire about 1.7M subscribers. And if they do that, the $300M Netflix was giving them is replaced AND they have full control of their programming and all the benefits of a relatively captive base.

If a Disney offering can match WWE in terms of number of paying subscribers, about 2M subscribers at about $15/month = $360M/yr in revenues.

If I'm Disney, I expect to do considerably better than the niche reach of WWE, so I project larger volumes of probable subscribers:
  • 3M (subscribers) = $540M/yr
  • 4M = $720M/yr
  • 5M = $900M/yr
So how much does an Apple (or other) need to cough up to motivate Disney to do a Disney-Netflix exclusive deal instead of Disney doing it themselves? If I'm Disney, the success of others is highly encouraging me to roll my own service. Of course money does talk, so does someone like Apple show up and offer me enough money to delay these aspirations a few more years? For example, if I believe I see a billion-dollar opportunity, will Apple pay me more than that billion to motivate me to put off rolling my own for now? Apparently Netflix was not willing to pay up for whatever Disney wanted to persist the existing deal. Apple certainly has the money... but the question is: will Apple pay up for content like this?

Based on history, the answer is probably no. There has been numorous opportunities in recent years for Apple to spend some of it's mountain of cash on a variety of desirable programming: Time Warner (which included Warner Bros), NFL Sunday ticket, NFL Thursday Night football, etc. And time after time, the rumors were that Apple didn't even bid. So would they even bid for an Apple Disney deal?
 
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No need to be a copycat. There is plenty of original and compelling content, but from many scattered sources.

MY SAMPLE GUIDE:
  1. NBC (nbc.com): The Blacklist, Blindspot, Shades of Blue, Chicago Fire, Chicago P.D., Chicago Med, Timeless
  2. ABC (abc.go.com): Designated Survivor
  3. FOX (foxnow.com): Lethal Weapon, Rosewood
  4. Showtime (showtimeanytime.com): Billions, Ray Donovan, Homeland, Brotherhood
  5. HBO (hobo.com): Game of Thrones, Westworld, Deadwood, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, Tracey Ullman’s Show, Ballers
  6. Starz (starz.com): Outlander, Black Sails
  7. TNT (tntdrama.com): Good Behavior, Animal Kingdom, The Last Ship
  8. Sundance Now (sundancenow.com): The Bureau
  9. USA (USANetwork.com): Shooter
  10. History (history.com): Vikings, SIX, Forged in Fire
  11. FX (fxnetworks.com): The Americans
  12. NBCSports (nbcsports.com): English Premier League (EPL)
  13. TV5Monde (usa.tv5monde.com): French Cinema/News/Documentaries
  14. Comedy Central (cc.com): South Park

we share similar tastes :) except Southpark - never understood that and sports (although i watch NFL). I would add

The CW - Berlanti Verse, Riverdale, Supernatural and The 100
Netflix - too many to name
Amazon - Man in High Castle
SyFy - Expanse, Twelve Monkeys, KillJoys, Wyonna Earp and soon Krypton
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I see what's in it for viewers and Apple. What's in it for Disney?

Note: back in 2012 when the Netflix Disney deal was struck, there was belief that Netflix had agreed to pay about $300 MILLION per year for that deal. If true, fast forward to 2017 and obviously whatever was the actual amount is no longer enough for Disney. So how much does Apple need to pay to strike this deal?

Note2: the Netflix deal did not include getting to see new movies before and during their theatrical runs, so how much more does Apple pay for that option too?

Seeing new movies via streamed service during their initial run will NEVER HAPPEN. Let that ghost die. Otherwise, spot on with everything else you said.
 
What on earth is this once-great company doing? The last thing the world needs is another pointless bargain bucket TV streaming service.

Sooner or later another company is going to start producing a decent range of nicely-designed laptops and desktops with a Linux- or UNIX-based OS to rival Mac OS X (or whatever it's called nowadays), then Apple will finally work out what they've been doing wrong since Jobs died, at which point it will be too late.
 
Just one hit. AMC was an unknown station with decent but non-noteworthy shows until Mad Men.

Apple needs s carefully selected show that not GoT or SoA. That's original and noteworthy.
 
Let me translate this headline:
Apple Sets Aside '$1 Billion War Chest' for Hollywood Programming

Into proper English:
Apple Sets Aside '$1 Billion War Chest' for Hollywood Programming Globalist Propaganda
 
Company with $262b in offshore account spend $1b on new venture! Makes me wonder how serious they are about playing in this market. Based solely on the investment, I'm guessing not very serious.

Yeah, but the offshore money is not available to use in Hollywood. That's why Apple keeps taking out loans in the US.

OTOH, Apple could easily buy up all of the Bollywood industry :D
 
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Really looking forward to this, Apple will create quality stuff for sure. I just hope it is all not trapped inside the Apple Music service, it seems stupid opening a Music app to watch TV shows or movies.
 
Is 1 billion enough? They need to be careful whom they deal with.
Yep. That's about 10 seconds worth of 'tunes' from most of the current R&B, RAP or Grime people. Well that's their overrated opinions of their self worth IMHO. I'd give them 10cents an hour :) :) :wink:

Get decent stories with a decent plot and ones that are not remakes or sequels or prequels. Oh, and people who know about how to play characters not just read their lines from an autocue.
 
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All Apple need to do is enter the market at the high end, pay everyone, literally everyone for everything and have the subscription at the high end too, Sports to be separate to TV/Movies though. ''Everything from everywhere, on every device''. The market has many middle of the road, miss this, miss that type services. Go all in on content and use the TV app as the front end.
 
Apple really needs an "iTunes Now" type service with 4K content that is actually good. I never liked the idea of purchasing Netflix, especially not with how much cheaper it would be to slowly get into the space. Hopefully Apple can pull it off. 1 billion is a good start.
 
The issue I have with this is that there are too many competitors fighting over a small number of content providers.

There are only so many good directors and good writers. Once you start pulling people off of teams and letting do passion projects with no experience, you get a lot of garbage.

In the words of Warren Buffett, "Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful."
 
Just one hit. AMC was an unknown station with decent but non-noteworthy shows until Mad Men.

Apple needs s carefully selected show that not GoT or SoA. That's original and noteworthy.

That's so easy to write down but so difficult to do. If anyone can be a television hit savant, Hollywood will pay you countless millions of dollars to identify only the hit shows in the pool of all potential shows being conceptualized & piloted each year. For every Mad Men, there are probably 100+ other shows that look about as desirable in the idea stage and probably dozens that look about as good at the pilot stage.

And then there are much beloved shows like Seinfeld & Cheers that took a long time to find an audience but became massive & long-running hit programming once they did. Particularly with Seinfeld, imagine the pitch of "a show about nothing" vs a pitch about Planet of the Apps and/or Carpool Karaoke. Does the concept of a Seinfeld show sound more appealing than the latter at the idea stage?

A billion or not... some real hollywood talent or not... picking any given show and having it become a hit is a long shot. Think of all of the much-promoted, seemingly-interesting pilots rolled out even last fall that are already dead & buried. Every one of those were deemed hit-likely enough to get many millions in funding for some number of episodes. Before that, they competed with countless others to win an order for a pilot. And before that they competed with many more when they were mostly one of many ideas for a new show.
 
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