Apple Spending $6 Billion on Original Content for Apple TV+ [Update: Launch Coming in Nov., Price Could Be $9.99/Month]

[newyorksole]

Once again we see someone defending Apple saying remember the watch, homepods, iphone, etc. They said they would flop too. Lol

Let’s remember Apple had to hire a couple to do this since they have no experience. This isn’t an Apple made product. There’s no software + hardware story here. It’s just a desperate attempt at a revenue stream spending money they otherwise seemingly have no clue how to spend elsewhere. A panic reaction from slowing iPhone sales.

I’m reluctant to do subs. Sorry Apple. Atv wasn’t broken. But now atv becomes a bloated app trying to sell me stuff. It’s a downgrade in experience.

Yeah uhhh Apple also had no experience in the Health Industry and hired people from it. They didn’t have experience in headphones/streaming and acquired Beats.

Your argument implies that just because Apple needs to hire new people that they can’t succeed.

Idk what’s so hard about you guys actually waiting for Apple to come out with their products/services before passing such extreme judgment.

It’s ok to pre-judge, but so many “fans” of Apple seem to want them to fail right out the gate and think it’s unfathomable for Apple to succeed in anything Lol.

It’s really weird coming to this forum now....

 

[cardfan]

netflix is a killer no way they can compete

While I don’t see this thing as a win anytime soon for Apple, you’d have to think long term. Sure Netflix is much more compelling right now.

However if Apple can stay committed and isn’t afraid to spend (honestly the 6 billion surprised me) then things can start looking different down the road. That’s a big if because you never know with Apple.

Most critics are very short term minded. Again nope doesn’t look worth 10 a month with 5 shows. But Apple can get through the hardest part. The beginning. Then comes the fun part. How do you handle renewals. What ratings do you use. Netflix has this stuff figured out you’d think.

Whatever the case this isn’t helping services right away. It’ll be interesting to see if Apple is all in. With only the rumored one billion that was a big question. Does make you wonder though why they didn’t snatch up any existing content.

 

[Khedron]

You lost us at the beginning when you critiqued Carpool Karaoke. CK is so successful that it was just renewed for a third season! Many millions of monthly viewers.

Also free to watch.

News+ had many subscribers during its free trial. Now not so many.

 

[stevie grant]

Netflix is about to go in the toilet with Disney and Apple+ if this price is true. I could get both for cheaper than the Netflix UHD plan, and I am sure the quality of content will smash Netflix.

Netflix going under will have nothing to do with Apple+, as its family-friendly content will soon become irrelevant and disappear -- like other ill-conceived ventures by Apple.

"and I am sure the quality of content will smash Netflix."

This is simply delusional. What could you possibly be basing this on? A dream you had?

 

[newyorksole]

Nobody said the iPhone would flop, except for the competition who badly needed it to flop. In fact the iPhone keynote even made it into Germany’s main evening news of that day. No other company announcement before or ever since raised to this level of importance. And this for a product which even at its jaw-dropping price wouldn’t be up for sale for months in the US and years in the rest of the world. Everyone instantly knew, we had entered a new era of mobile computing. Now tell me about this Netflix clone they are building today!?

Uhhh plenty of people said the iPhone would flop because of the price and lack of features. People expected the competition to kill Apple.

“Netflix clone”? There’s a new burger restaurant chain everyday. They all can succeed.

Apple can succeed too. Does every product/service begin successfully? No. It takes years sometimes for something to take off.

Apple TV+ doesn’t look amazing to me, but let’s wait and see how these shows are and see if the service improves over time... There’s obviously room for multiple streaming platforms.

 

[sidewinder3000]

No word on non-original movies and TV shows? That’s going to be a big part of what makes this service attractive. The problem is, so many studios have their own streaming services or are planning them. So the license-able content that will be available moving forward will continue to thin.

Apple Music is $9.99 for (basically) ALL the music that’s out there. In my gut, it feels unlikely they’d charge $9.99 for just the handful of shows they’re creating unless they package it with a ton of great, non-original content.

 

[stevie grant]

Do you have any interest in hearing from someone who actually knows what Apple is producing?


https://www.macrumors.com/2019/07/02/eddy-cue-talks-apple-tv-plus-service/

Do you have any interest in hearing from someone who actually knows what Apple is producing?


https://www.macrumors.com/2019/07/02/eddy-cue-talks-apple-tv-plus-service/

That quote goes against what's been said by apple in multiple articles before and since.

Get back to me once you've seen a boob, heard someone say "f*ck", or seen a zombie rip out someone's guts on Apple TV+.

 

[Northgrove]

tl;dr I'm worried Apple will accidentally build this service mostly for 45+ year olds.

The effort sounds misguided, at least from one of their prime shows The Morning Show. I actually have a hard time thinking of something less constructive than throwing money at Jennifer Aniston or the likes. She's still most known for Friends, a TV show that ended 16 years ago and you need to be 40 years old today to have watched from the start since you were 15 years old.

It continues with their strict demands for low violence/gore/horror elements.

I swear it'll be D.O.A. to people born after the Internet boom and seen as a streaming service for dads.

 

[Abazigal]

Why would consumers care about profit-more markets? Why would consumers care about sustainability? The fact of all the metric points you pointed out profit and sustainability kind of shows why you don’t understand nor will you ever understand half of the complaints.

On the topic of Apple TV+, they can easily burn thru a large chunk of their cash and not have much to show from it. It’s why there is much skepticism about this service.

You don’t think it’s important that a service that you use and love will be financially viable and continue to stick around for the near foreseeable future?

I find it funny how so many people were clamouring for Apple to buy Netflix, where in reality, I simply don’t see Netflix as the indomitable juggernaut everyone seems to be making it out to be.

I feel that Netflix has many problems, and its grip on the video streaming market isn’t as strong as the Apple critics make it out to be (but then again, the haters tend to overrate everything the competition does, while simultaneously undervaluing everything that Apple does, so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised in this regard).

I personally find their video catalog underwhelming. Their original content feels very low-budget despite boasting household names, and simply isn’t resonating with me, while they are slowly losing legacy content.

Second, there is nothing stopping me from being subscribed to Netflix and other video-streaming services. Plus, if push comes to shove, who is to say that people won’t end up dropping Netflix instead of the other options?

Third, Netflix has to subsidise their pricing to nab as many subscribers as possible, which has the unintended side effect of devaluing paid video content. This has actually made it easier for new entrants, especially companies like Apple and Disney with much deeper pockets.

Truth is - Netflix has been running away with the ball with little competition up till now. Soon, the real battle will begin, compromising of new contenders from Disney, Apple and Time Warner.

And Netflix couldn’t have found itself in a worse position at a worse timing. They still haven’t drawn a profit, yet are stuck between raising prices (and possibly losing users) and keeping prices the same and continuing to haemorrhage losses.

Begun the video streaming wars have. The next five years will be fun to watch.

 

[sidewinder3000]

$9/month for Aquaman? It's bad enough he's in dune 2020.

Jason Momoa was solid in GOT & Aquaman, no reason to think he won’t be in the new Dune as well. Haters gonna hate.

 

[Smartass]

Apple should just buy HBO and splash all those billions into making even greater series. But i guess they rather go down the "Ping" path. Oh boy is this gonna be a clusterfu.

 

[citysnaps]

Yeah uhhh Apple also had no experience in the Health Industry and hired people from it. They didn’t have experience in headphones/streaming and acquired Beats.

Your argument implies that just because Apple needs to hire new people that they can’t succeed.

Idk what’s so hard about you guys actually waiting for Apple to come out with their products/services before passing such extreme judgment.

It’s ok to pre-judge, but so many “fans” of Apple seem to want them to fail right out the gate and think it’s unfathomable for Apple to succeed in anything Lol.

It’s really weird coming to this forum now....

"It’s ok to pre-judge, but so many “fans” of Apple seem to want them to fail right out the gate and think it’s unfathomable for Apple to succeed in anything Lol."

I think that's because many don't have a lot going on in their lives and are generally unhappy. And ragging on someone, or even some company, helps them feel better about themselves, getting them through the day.

 

[PickUrPoison]

That quote goes against what's been said by apple in multiple articles before and since.

Get back to me once you've seen a boob, heard someone say "f*ck", or seen a zombie rip out someone's guts on Apple TV+.

Cue IS Apple, he’s the head of worldwide video. I’ll take his statement over the rumors you choose to believe.

That said, the amount of violence, language and/or sex may not be sufficient to satisfy you. Others will be upset because it’s not all G-rated. I suspect both ends of the spectrum may be disappointed, since Apple tends to go with what works for the 80% in the middle, rather than the 20% at the edges.

 

[sidewinder3000]

tl;dr I'm worried Apple will accidentally build this service mostly for 45+ year olds.

The effort sounds misguided, at least from one of their prime shows The Morning Show. I actually have a hard time thinking of something less constructive than throwing money at Jennifer Aniston or the likes. She's still most known for Friends, a TV show that ended 16 years ago and you need to be 40 years old today to have watched from the start since you were 15 years old.

It continues with their strict demands for low violence/gore/horror elements.

I swear it'll be D.O.A. to people born after the Internet boom and seen as a streaming service for dads.

Apple hasn’t made Apple Music a service for 45+ year olds. In fact, it seems to have gone out of its way to make it hyper-focused on pop, hip-hop & rap for the under 30 set. (I actually wish they gave more love to alternative & indie music.) So I find it hard to believe that they’d completely pivot and focus their streaming TV service on an older demographic. Unless they somehow found that that was where the profit was in that market.

 

[Defender2010]

tl;dr I'm worried Apple will accidentally build this service mostly for 45+ year olds.

The effort sounds misguided, at least from one of their prime shows The Morning Show. I actually have a hard time thinking of something less constructive than throwing money at Jennifer Aniston or the likes. She's still most known for Friends, a TV show that ended 16 years ago and you need to be 40 years old today to have watched from the start since you were 15 years old.

It continues with their strict demands for low violence/gore/horror elements.

I swear it'll be D.O.A. to people born after the Internet boom and seen as a streaming service for dads.

..perhaps some millennials can fit a show in between their therapy classes for PTSD.

 

[Expos of 1969]

Apple hasn’t made Apple Music a service for 45+ year olds. In fact, it seems to have gone out of its way to make it hyper-focused on pop, hip-hop & rap for the under 30 set. (I actually wish they focused more on alternative & indie music.) So I find it hard to believe that they’d completely pivot and focus their streaming TV service on an older demographic. Unless they somehow found that that was where the profit was in that market.

You are bang on regarding Apple Music. It is why I also subscribe to Spotify as it IMO is much better at exposing this 60 year old to a wider variety of interesting music.

 

[sfwalter]

I’m trying to figure out their demographic. I would imagine most folks either have Netflix or Amazon Prime. What’s going to get them to pay an extra $10 month.

 

[mytdave]

What a waste of money. Would much rather they spend $6B on developing a new line of modular MacBook Pros.

 

[sidewinder3000]

So much money and nothing to show for ... this is like when Microsoft bought Nokia.

Nope. That would be the case if Apple had bought another streaming service or studio. But they didn’t.

Microsoft would have to have created their own phone from scratch for your comparison to be valid. They didn’t.

 

[PickUrPoison]

What a waste of money. Would much rather they spend $6B on developing a new line of modular MacBook Pros.

Apple spends $6 billion on R&D every four months, regardless of what they spend on video content. There’s no shortage of R&D funds.

 

[User 6502]

Netflix is about to go in the toilet with Disney and Apple+ if this price is true. I could get both for cheaper than the Netflix UHD plan, and I am sure the quality of content will smash Netflix.

Lol it’s not going to happen.

 

[Otaviano]

Netflix is about to go in the toilet with Disney and Apple+ if this price is true. I could get both for cheaper than the Netflix UHD plan, and I am sure the quality of content will smash Netflix.

I do not get why everyone is so down on Netflix. Either thinking they are done for or actively hoping for it. Netflix would have been more than happy to let us stream content from everyone but all these greedy corporations think we should pay 10 dollars a month for a dozen different streaming services. If anything we should all be hoping everyone else flops so we can have a video streaming model similar to music.

As for Netflix I think their position is pretty good. They are the only global player (as of today) with a huge install base and their content strategy has been pretty good. They are making things with big names in America but they are also doing local productions all over the globe. Which I think gives them a distinct advantage over a lot of these other services which seems to think they can live off their back catalog. People in Asia, South America, Europe, and so on also want programming where they are represented. Disney is completely incapable of producing anything new. All they have is remakes of their animation films and Marvel. Star Wars they already sucked half the life out of. Sooner or later people will tire of the Marvel movies too.

 

[Rogifan]

Yeah uhhh Apple also had no experience in the Health Industry and hired people from it. They didn’t have experience in headphones/streaming and acquired Beats.

Your argument implies that just because Apple needs to hire new people that they can’t succeed.

Idk what’s so hard about you guys actually waiting for Apple to come out with their products/services before passing such extreme judgment.

It’s ok to pre-judge, but so many “fans” of Apple seem to want them to fail right out the gate and think it’s unfathomable for Apple to succeed in anything Lol.

It’s really weird coming to this forum now....

I’m not sold on Apple being in the content business. I think it was working from the financials backwards to get to a product. It’s all about how can we make money off this huge install base we have. And iPhone sales cooling off quicker than Apple expected forced the company to accelerate these plans. Having said that, the company does have a ton of money they can throw at this and if they can acquire some good content then nothing else much matters. The hard part will be not having a back catalog of anything. It’s hard for people to sign up for a monthly service when they don’t know if the content on it will be any good. But it will be harder and harder to license existing content because all these content players are spinning up their own services.

 

[where is it]

Ironically for a creative company, Apple has always ruined any attempt at creative content. Apples idea of 'fun' is through education. Which can be fun, but not on point with the Netflix generation.

 

[newyorksole]

I’m not sold on Apple being in the content business. I think it was working from the financials backwards to get to a product. It’s all about how can we make money off this huge install base we have. And iPhone sales cooling off quicker than Apple expected forced the company to accelerate these plans. Having said that, the company does have a ton of money they can throw at this and if they can acquire some good content then nothing else much matters. The hard part will be not having a back catalog of anything. It’s hard for people to sign up for a monthly service when they don’t know if the content on it will be any good. But it will be harder and harder to license existing content because all these content players are spinning up their own services.

I mean, Apple has a huge install base so it’s smart for them to see what new markets they can tap into. If I was an Apple executive I’d definitely try to see what we can come up with that people would find value in.

I do agree that they have accelerated their services strategy. And yeah it will be tough for Apple to compete, but let’s see what they can do. It’s good these companies offer free trials for their services.

I also think Apple anticipated iPhone sales to take a bit of a hit. They would be stupid not to expect that considering the market saturation, increased price and lack of major updates year-to-year.

Let’s see what happens.