Apple Video Execs to Scope Out Movies at the Toronto International Film Festival

[nylon]

I hope not. Netflix is popular because it can run on almost any device from any company.

The last thing we need is to be required to buy expensive Apple devices with badly designed remotes to watch Netflix. That would kill Netflix within a year or less.

Netflix is popular primarily because of content. I doubt Apple would limit the type of devices any TV service would run on. That would run contrary to expanding market share. Likely the model would be to generate "halo effect" and draw more people into the tent i.e by bundling into Apple Music/Apple TV subscription offering while still offering standalone subscribtions on 3rd party platforms.

 

[Bacillus]

This is the problem with all the newbie (post iPhone) Apple fans. They’ve only been around for Apple’s meteoric rise. It wasn’t always like this. There were decades of struggle, ups and downs, and failed products before the iPhone. But all the newbie fans point to the trillion dollar wall street valuation and profit margin percentages as if they’re some kind of cloak of invincibility.

You bring up an excellent point. Just because you are the dominant player in one market means little when it comes time to enter a new one. Apple was never the dominant player in any market until the iPod and, later, the iPhone. Two excellent products. But that makes them experts at building cars? Or producing original video content? I don’t think so. Granted, they could surprise us, as they did with the iPhone and cellphone market, but only a fool (ie: diehard fanboy) would take it for granted.

Video is going to be a true test for Apple. With Music, they had a built-in audience. Same goes for video. The difference is, every music service has the same catalog more or less. So an iPhone owning Spotify user might ditch Spotify in favor of Music. But I don’t think anyone believes that Apple Video is going to be a Netflix killer. So will consumers pay for another service? I have my doubts. I already pay for Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. I’m not really willing to pay for another. I poach HBO using a family member’s login in order to watch Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley. As good as those shows are, I wouldn’t pay another $20/month just for them.
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I think you’re jumping the gun a bit. Apple knows how to deliver content. But can they produce it? Big difference. So far their two original shows don’t inspire much optimism.

Overall, though, I agree with your take. But will consumers open their wallets for yet another media subscription? Adding another service is different from switching services. I’m already paying for several services. I poach HBO because the two shows I watch aren’t worth paying $20/month for and I wouldn’t pay for Amazon if it wasn’t included in Prime. If Apple’s original content becomes part of Music, great! But if it’s a separate/new/additional charge, I don’t think it’s going to be a slam dunk.

Exactly. Cable cutting is nice if you get similar content from a limited number of sources (mkt surveys say 2/3 to the max)
Apple is pretty late to the game, started slow (Tim’s toe in the water says enough) and amateuristic (the Eddy Cue programming of inane quality) - which are all ingredients of a bad start.
Of course there are truckloads of money but the critical success factors are lacking as of yet. With selfdriving cars, their lag is even more dramatic.

 

[Yvan256]

Netflix is popular primarily because of content. I doubt Apple would limit the type of devices any TV service would run on. That would run contrary to expanding market share. Likely the model would be to generate "halo effect" and draw more people into the tent i.e by bundling into Apple Music/Apple TV subscription offering while still offering standalone subscribtions on 3rd party platforms.

Somehow I don't see Apple working on keeping non-Apple platforms up-to-date if they went ahead and bought Netflix.

After all, where's Apple music and iTunes movies/TV shows for the Android tablets, the Amazon Fire tablets, the Nintendo consoles, the Microsoft Xbox consoles, the Sony Playstation consoles, the LG/Samsung/Sharp/etc smart TVs, etc.

Heck, I'm afraid they'll prevent Netflix from updating their app on my 3rd-generation Apple TV in a few years, just to force me to upgrade to the new Apple TV. If/when Netflix stops working on my current Apple TV, I'm ditching it and buying something else.

 

[ipponrg]

Somehow I don't see Apple working on keeping non-Apple platforms up-to-date if they went ahead and bought Netflix.

After all, where's Apple music and iTunes movies/TV shows for the Android tablets, the Amazon Fire tablets, the Nintendo consoles, the Microsoft Xbox consoles, the Sony Playstation consoles, the LG/Samsung/Sharp/etc smart TVs, etc.

Heck, I'm afraid they'll prevent Netflix from updating their app on my 3rd-generation Apple TV in a few years, just to force me to upgrade to the new Apple TV. If/when Netflix stops working on my current Apple TV, I'm ditching it and buying something else.

The other solid platform that has more users than Apple TV is Roku, so you will be OK if/when this ever happens.

This is getting kind of old. We have had at least a year of news about hiring people or "green lighting" this possible show or that possible show and yet ZERO actual products or even how, if there are going to be products, it will be served up. iTunes? TV App? Music app (like Car Pool).

It just adds to the confusing mess that Apple music and video services already are. With so many video subscription plans out there already will it matter if Apple actually jumps in with more than the trivial failures that have tried so far (planet of the apps) ???

We'll just have to see how this plays out. The news about hiring people or "green lighting" shows is to generate interest from the public and press. So far, I'm pretty unimpressed by both the actors they've publicized in addition to the some of the producing talent.

As Steve knows when he tried to integrate cable OTT with Apple, licensing and working with cable / media companies is far from trivial. He realized the studios/tv don't care about Apple in the same way Apple sees itself.

 

[Analog Kid]

TIFF? I'd thought Apple had moved to PNG.

 

[QquegChristian]

As a filmmaker, the shift to exclusive content is really conflicting to me.

I just directed a modestly-sized indie and I want people to eventually be able to see it with the least amount of hoops to jump through. But movies are also a business and we owe it to our investors to take the best deal.

It would be a real bummer to have to turn away fans based on them not being in the Apple ecosystem.

 

[nylon]

Somehow I don't see Apple working on keeping non-Apple platforms up-to-date if they went ahead and bought Netflix.

After all, where's Apple music and iTunes movies/TV shows for the Android tablets, the Amazon Fire tablets, the Nintendo consoles, the Microsoft Xbox consoles, the Sony Playstation consoles, the LG/Samsung/Sharp/etc smart TVs, etc.

Heck, I'm afraid they'll prevent Netflix from updating their app on my 3rd-generation Apple TV in a few years, just to force me to upgrade to the new Apple TV. If/when Netflix stops working on my current Apple TV, I'm ditching it and buying something else.

iTunes video content is not a market leader in video service and the lack of original and exclusive content is the primary reason. There is no original content. Whatever content is on iTunes video service has always been available on the other platforms already. That is why there has been no point in expanding iTunes video service to other platforms. It makes no sense. Hence why acquiring HBO or Netflix would put them in a position to expand that market. The original content issue is the key issue.

Your concern that Netflix will not be able to update their app on your ATV3 (a 6 year old piece of hardware) is really a separate issue related to the age of that device and the willingness of the developer, in your case Netflix, to spend resources on a software platform that is not current. Netflix is not running their latest app interface on your ATV3 even now. On your Apple TV the OS started out based on iOS 5 and was updated upto and including iOS8 (Apple TV Software V 7.2.2). That hardware is simply not capable of supporting the current iOS platform. Considering that 85% of the Apple's user base is running on iOS 11 and less than 5% of the user base is running anything below iOS 10, it makes no sense for Netflix to spend resources on developing for iOS 8. That's how software companies work. The fact that you can still use your ATV3 6 years later is amazing. I still have two ATV3's in use in my house. You might not be running the latest UI but you still have access to the same content in the Netflix app as everyone else.

 

[Bacillus]

iTunes video content is not a market leader in video service and the lack of original and exclusive content is the primary reason. There is no original content. Whatever content is on iTunes video service has always been available on the other platforms already. That is why there has been no point in expanding iTunes video service to other platforms. It makes no sense. Hence why acquiring HBO or Netflix would put them in a position to expand that market. The original content issue is the key issue.

Your concern that Netflix will not be able to update their app on your ATV3 (a 6 year old piece of hardware) is really a separate issue related to the age of that device and the willingness of the developer, in your case Netflix, to spend resources on a software platform that is not current. Netflix is not running their latest app interface on your ATV3 even now. On your Apple TV the OS started out based on iOS 5 and was updated upto and including iOS8 (Apple TV Software V 7.2.2). That hardware is simply not capable of supporting the current iOS platform. Considering that 85% of the Apple's user base is running on iOS 11 and less than 5% of the user base is running anything below iOS 10, it makes no sense for Netflix to spend resources on developing for iOS 8. That's how software companies work. The fact that you can still use your ATV3 6 years later is amazing. I still have two ATV3's in use in my house. You might not be running the latest UI but you still have access to the same content in the Netflix app as everyone else.

Apps that do not depend on deprecated system functions and routines could be easily maintained, developed and innovated - also in iOS 7/8/9/10.

 

[Yvan256]

The fact that you can still use your ATV3 6 years later is amazing. I still have two ATV3's in use in my house. You might not be running the latest UI but you still have access to the same content in the Netflix app as everyone else.

There's nothing amazing about hardware still doing what it was designed to do a mere six years later. As far as I know Netflix still supports H.264 so there would be absolutely no reason for the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TVs to stop working with Netflix.

I'm not expecting a new interface or anything, but I'm more concerned about Apple preventing Netflix from updating the application for older generations of Apple TVs because those updates have to go through Apple, Netflix cannot unilaterally decide to update something without Apple's support.

A small change Netflix could do would be the rating system, which still uses 1 to 5 stars in the version for the 3rd generation Apple TV. Maybe Netflix would like to change it to their new thumbs up/thumbs down instead (even if I find that rating system completely useless).

If Netflix drops H.264 support and switches to a new CODEC in a few years then it's sort of a given that older devices will not be supported, Apple or otherwise.

 

[nylon]

There's nothing amazing about hardware still doing what it was designed to do a mere six years later. As far as I know Netflix still supports H.264 so there would be absolutely no reason for the 2nd and 3rd generation Apple TVs to stop working with Netflix.

A mere 6 years. In the tech world that's like 3 lifetimes. The majority of Android based products won't update after 2 years.

I'm not expecting a new interface or anything, but I'm more concerned about Apple preventing Netflix from updating the application for older generations of Apple TVs because those updates have to go through Apple, Netflix cannot unilaterally decide to update something without Apple's support.

This again boils down to the OS platform. Netflix can update whatever they want as long is it is supported by the iOS 8 platform that the ATV3 is on. Again, the issue boils down to whether Netflix will devote resources to a platform that makes up less than 5% of the Apple user base.

A small change Netflix could do would be the rating system, which still uses 1 to 5 stars in the version for the 3rd generation Apple TV. Maybe Netflix would like to change it to their new thumbs up/thumbs down instead (even if I find that rating system completely useless).

If Netflix drops H.264 support and switches to a new CODEC in a few years then it's sort of a given that older devices will not be supported, Apple or otherwise.

The rating system on the Netflix app has nothing to do with Apple. I'm pretty sure they could update their legacy apps to reflect their new system. I doubt they will though. Neither Netflix nor Apple will drop support for a legacy codec like H.264 as it is still has a large lead in market share (75%).

I think of it this way. My ATV3 cost $99 brand new. Over six years the per monthly cost has been $1.38. Amazing value. I wouldn't hesitate to spend money on a current gen ATV.

 

[thepixelpusher]

Please No Michael Moore films! I'm so sick of the people that cannot get over the legitimately elected President we have in the USA.