Will this content be available only through Apple's platforms? That's the only motivation that I can see to doing this. Otherwise, where is the profit potential?
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Apple Sets Aside '$1 Billion War Chest' for Hollywood Programming
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It's good to have more executive producers financing movies/shows, especially if it enables truly original content to be made, rather than the typical formula content that caters to the least sophisticated audience.
What I dread, are the increasing number of networks. The streaming model is already beginning to resemble the hated cable model. At the end of the day, it will be just as Balkanized as traditional television.
What I dread, are the increasing number of networks. The streaming model is already beginning to resemble the hated cable model. At the end of the day, it will be just as Balkanized as traditional television.
Apple has been displaying and selling other people's tv/film content for around a decade and *that's* the dissolving part of the paradigm. Creating original content is the only path forward because it gives Apple the ability to offer something unique to viewers and the ability to control that unique content. Apple, like all the other video venders, is 100% beholden to the companies that actually create the content and that's not a position any company wants to be in. It's not a coincidence that every business that started out 'displaying and selling others' content' (from ABC and FOX to HBO and Showtime to Hulu and YouTube) have transitioned into creating their own original content.
10 years or so ago, the combination of the
TV and movies/TV shows on the iTMS presented a pretty streamlined solution to the problem of getting streaming/downloadable content onto your living room TV. Now there's dozens of solutions and doing it Apple's way is always an additional expense.Yeap, Apples business model of following everyone else will totally fail in TV land because they can't perfect or improve anything as the markets so well established now, its more a desperation chest as opposed to a 'war chest'!
They will have do a LOT and that's the literal LOT to catch up with, let all be beat the players in the market now.
Still competition is good, but I don't know if Apples realised that the success of Netflix and Amazon has a lot to do with their support for all platforms.
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Did they make Carpool Karaokee........
Netflix is about to launch its next Marvel show, and Apple has Carpool Karaokee...... oh and Disney is NOT leaving Netflix either, and Amazon is pushing more into its content too...
I singed up to Netflix when investment advisors in the news were warning people to ignore it and it was a dead duck..... yeah it's changed the way you watch television and will change movies forever...
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or double that and just buy HBO. not a real suggestion, but if they want to be successful in this they're going to need to spend far more than just 1B
Noooooo they didn’t. They came after Carpool Karaokee was already established for Apple’s lineup.
"Personal computers are booming business, I tell ya! Get on that train, and you'll be on your way to profitville before you know it!"
You must be right, as TV now is already such a seamless service, thanks to...????? I mean, how could Apple hope to "revolutionize" something already so perfect and flawless? No way will Apple be able to "make claims on revolutionizing" this, which obviously is their core business model.
Oh, was that sarcasm? Pardon me.
I'll agree with many here that $1B seems low and I would hardly call it a war chest in today's dollars with what Apple wants to do and who they are competing with and the future of tv and movies.
Apple is very late to this game...Netflix, Amazon, cable providers, and the networks themselves have years' more experience and working models. If Apple were to start hiring producers and every other human needed to get a tv show going it will still be at least 12 months from now for it to air. Example, Apple's first show: Apple would need to hire the producers, hire the cast, create the story, film and edit the story, then market/advertise the show, then stream the show, etc. 12 months of work.
Creating and distributing a tv series or movie is far different and more time consuming than filming a 6 minute video starring a few celebrities singing their favorite songs in a car.
The other aspect is that Apple is not a movie company. Apple's core mission has nothing to do with movies/shows unlike every competitor Apple is up against. Apple simply wants in on the game so they can keep AppleTV from being a middle-man device. I'm not a Producer but I'd probably rather be working with Netflix or Amazon or HBO right now than newbie Apple trying to save the AppleTV and who has no experience.
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Hysterical! I read it like a cast member in Oklahoma or some other similar musical.
Apple is very late to this game...Netflix, Amazon, cable providers, and the networks themselves have years' more experience and working models. If Apple were to start hiring producers and every other human needed to get a tv show going it will still be at least 12 months from now for it to air. Example, Apple's first show: Apple would need to hire the producers, hire the cast, create the story, film and edit the story, then market/advertise the show, then stream the show, etc. 12 months of work.
Creating and distributing a tv series or movie is far different and more time consuming than filming a 6 minute video starring a few celebrities singing their favorite songs in a car.
The other aspect is that Apple is not a movie company. Apple's core mission has nothing to do with movies/shows unlike every competitor Apple is up against. Apple simply wants in on the game so they can keep AppleTV from being a middle-man device. I'm not a Producer but I'd probably rather be working with Netflix or Amazon or HBO right now than newbie Apple trying to save the AppleTV and who has no experience.
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Hysterical! I read it like a cast member in Oklahoma or some other similar musical.
A lot of costs are incurred outside the US. For one, world-wide marketing. For another, location costs when the production takes place outside the US (which is extremely common). Third, post-production costs that are incurred outside the USA (you've probably heard of WETA, at least).
That $1B might include, say, only $200M actually spent in the USA.
Apple spent $5B on their new headquarters. So Apple is committing 1/5th of a budget to a new line of business vs. building the new office. Oh, and $5B is insane. It's the 3rd most expensive building in the world.
Now this is good news. There's so much quality TV out there now, it can only get better. If Apple stays true to form, it's going to be impressive.
Also, rather interesting which direction this could take.
Also, rather interesting which direction this could take.
Apple these days wants their tentacles in everything with minimal investment and half-baked marketing failures waiting to happen like planet of the apps. It doesn't work that way. Invest big, cast the net wide and you might strike lucky, like Netflix and HBO have done, this half-assed approach will get you nowhere.
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They tried to do this a few years ago, but they were shot down. They thought they could sign content rights their way and not the studios' way. It'd be interesting to see how well they do with $1B against the other players who have way more experience in that industry.
Netflix is spending $7 Billion in 2018... if Apple wants to complete, they need to outspend Netflix, Amazon, HBO, etc.
Well let's see what they do then, and I hope Apple doesn't go all control freak over it's programming and limit it to Apple devices only, because that's ignoring a massive much much bigger market. I have hope considering Apple Music is on Android.... they will have such a huge massive up hill battle though..
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$1B is enough to produce about 3 high quality original tv series with around 10 episodes each. If I were Eddy Cue, I’d get Spielberg, the Wachowskis, and the Duffer Bros. on the line. Get the ball rolling, find a formula that works and then grow their production budget.
I’d also suggest that Apple create a new brand to produce these tv shows under. Apple is diluting their brand by making “everything”. Apple should’ve bought Pixar when they had the chance but they have the cash to buy all of Disney and keep it separate as their entertainment production arm. Absent that, create a studio with its own brand identity.
I’d also suggest that Apple create a new brand to produce these tv shows under. Apple is diluting their brand by making “everything”. Apple should’ve bought Pixar when they had the chance but they have the cash to buy all of Disney and keep it separate as their entertainment production arm. Absent that, create a studio with its own brand identity.
Netflix is planning in making big big films too for Netflix exclusively, it's got a fantasy action film staring Will Smith coming in December, one that's in there now, hell I like the film Spectral, a cool SciFi, they didn't make it but bought it from Legendary Pictures who ditched it at the last minute afte spending all their money making it? But because Netflix bought all its rights they could slap Netflix original and exclusive all over it.
I predict their spend will increase next year, they wanted to block people using VPNs to access other country Netflix so they could start to use parity across different country's with their content, but they needed to stop the piracy to get the licenses for that, seems their plan is working brilliantly.