Roku CEO Talks About Apple TV+ Going Cross-Platform

[SirChristopher]

Roku's stock has been a machine these last few months.

 

[Cesar Battistini]

I want my Smart TVs to play the movies I own in iTunes. I want my Stupid TVs to play the movies I own in iTunes through all my streaming devices. I do not want my phone to be involved in watching the movies I own on iTunes.

That is exactly what is going to happen, iTunes movies will be available on Smart TVs through the Apple TV app.

 

[Focusx0131]

How does Apple have a lot of experience in the subscription service business? Other then iCloud, what subscriptions have they really been selling?

iPhone Upgrade Program can be seen as a subscription service as with AppleCare+ that can be its own stand alone subscription as well. They are about to earn a bunch more experience with all the services they announced yesterday. Hopefully they will learn from it and make them better than the standard offerings.

 

[warp9]

I still can't get over what a waste of time that event was. We still know no details about Apple's tv service. Except the name!

This type of Apple event reminds me of that rich kid who only has friends because he pays for their drinks.

 

[Kaibelf]

I still can't get over what a waste of time that event was. We still know no details about Apple's tv service. Except the name!

What are you talking about? The service is original programming only, so more like CBS All Access than Netflix with some programming and then a bunch of licensed stuff. It will be accessed through the new TV app, identical to other sources. They went through the main original series' concepts and presented each one. What more do you need but the price? Everything I mentioned was spoken about AT LENGTH in the keynote.

 

[eatrains]

With so many video streaming services all demanding subscriptions it's no wonder torrents are becoming more popular again unfortunately.

Shame video wouldn't follow the music model of multiple audio streaming companies able to provide about the same content.

Thieves are gonna thieve no matter what.

 

[apolloa]

It’ll be good to see this in the U.K. on the Fire TV stick, also be nice to see it on my Nvidia Shield TV too, please Apple.

 

[smaffei]

And, now we know why Apple is not lowering the price of Apple TV boxes. I'm sure that in order to get help from companies like Roku and Amazon, Apple had to promise not to "price compete" with them.

If you don't realize from yesterday's event that the Apple TV hardware has just been unofficially EOLed, then you weren't playing attention.

 

[JoeCassara]

I bought a sound digitizer from Mr. Wood for my Amiga in 1987. Mail order from the back of a magazine. Came with a handwritten thank you card.

 

[Braderunner]

What are you talking about? The service is original programming only, so more like CBS All Access than Netflix with some programming and then a bunch of licensed stuff. It will be accessed through the new TV app, identical to other sources. They went through the main original series' concepts and presented each one. What more do you need but the price? Everything I mentioned was spoken about AT LENGTH in the keynote.

Didn't we really know that already? I mean...really?
Pricing really is key. Will it be a la carte? Will there be a bundle? ???
Hey...if you're satisfied, good for you! I, for one, still have the same questions (plus a few new ones) after watching.
Oh, and..."original programming only"?

 

[smulji]

And, now we know why Apple is not lowering the price of Apple TV boxes. I'm sure that in order to get help from companies like Roku and Amazon, Apple had to promise not to "price compete" with them.

If you don't realize from yesterday's event that the Apple TV hardware has just been unofficially EOLed, then you weren't playing attention.

You’re still missing one important element => Apple Arcade. You’re still gonna need an ATV box to play Apple Arcade games on your tv

 

[4jasontv]

Apple is a software company. Roku is an advertising company. Not ideal, but at least they don't have competing interests.

 

[2010mini]

With so many video streaming services all demanding subscriptions it's no wonder torrents are becoming more popular again unfortunately.

Shame video wouldn't follow the music model of multiple audio streaming companies able to provide about the same content.

People who torrent will do so no matter what.

The TV/Movie industry was not like the music industry when Apple started iTunes. It was in disarray and losing money.

TV and Movie studios however were/are a lot stronger. No distribution company has the muscle to demand they bend to their will. And also there are a lot of current rights in various markets that prevent studios from having every distributor show the same content.

This is the main reason Netflix, Hulu, Amazon.. etc are moving towards original content.

 

[PickUrPoison]

"Wood believes that Apple is "well-positioned" to be successful in the TV streaming market, despite its competitiveness, due to the company's large user base.

'There were not a lot of details announced, but I think they're well-positioned to be successful. They've got a lot of experience with subscription services, they're investing a lot of money in content, and they've got a great brand and lots of loyal customers.'"

I think Wood and Apple and a lot of others are greatly over-estimating the loyalty of longtime customers. I have been using Apple devices since 1981, which is more years than a large percentage of MacRumors members have been alive. I like my Apple devices, but I think Apple services blow big chunks. And judging by the posts I've read in many forums in the past few years, including this one, there are a lot of us so-called loyal Apple customers who hate Apple services but like Apple hardware. I have never liked any of Apple's services, and other than an occasional free trial have never used them long enough to pay a subscription. From what I saw yesterday, Apple just piddled all over itself with their services event. Apple was not prepared to make half of them available yet, nor did they give many details, and that suggests to me they are very clueless and ill prepared for those services. The two services that were made available both are extremely underwhelming. Financial experts are saying  Card is nothing special as has already been done by many companies like Amazon. Apple made no attempt to even compete in rewards with other companies. And from what I've seen trying to use the  New+ service it truly blows chunks. Why mix magazines in with news articles? Why use a clunky, crappy interface? What did they do with News Stand? It would have been a better interface than displaying scanned images of magazines like Smithsonian which have zero text formatting options, and magazines like National Geographic which does have a very few text formatting options but still looks bad in the News app interface. Meh... There is no way in hell I will pay for any of their services as long as they suck that bad. I will keep buying Apple devices as long as I can afford to, I have a new iPhone XR arriving today, but their services are over priced and not competitive enough to make me spend a single penny on any of them.

There are more than 1.4 billion active devices, I’m pretty sure many users are quite a bit more satisfied with Apple than are you. Don’t mistake a few dozen/hundred/thousand like-minded users in an Internet echo chamber for actual data; Apple customer satisfaction rates are in the high 90s.

That’s not to say there aren’t legitimate issues, Apple’s certainly not perfect. And if you’re not interested in the services, by all means don’t subscribe. But they earn a ton of money from services, so you can expect Apple to keep expanding them. There’s a reason Jobs dropped the word “Computer” from their name back in the 2000s.

 

[Frank Dalton]

Calling a streaming service that I can't use with a web browser on my platform of choice "cross-platform" is a bunch of poppycock.

 

[Steve.P.JobsFan]

So I can watch Apple TV+ on my Roku-powered Smart TV but I can’t use AirPlay 2 to cast media from my iPhone?

Cool.

 

[technole]

Solidarity with other streaming devices makes a lot of sense if you want to give Netflix a knockout punch.

How does Apple have a lot of experience in the subscription service business? Other then iCloud, what subscriptions have they really been selling?

Apple Music

 

[Winni]

This guy is so low energy for a CEO.

You know what? That's a good thing. He probably won't be throwing chairs at his team or firing people because he's on an emotional roller coaster. People like him stand for stability, which is something you come to appreciate a lot when you're over 40.

 

[Star Brood]

If this means I can start watching 4k iTunes movies natively on my Smart TV one day, I'm on board. The 4K movie library in Germany is so bad of you don't have a 4k Apple TV.

 

[drumcat]

Then why in the world can we not have an AppleTV APP on phone/pad?? I've been advocating that for a while... and it clearly can be done. What a loss.

 

[matrix07]

I still can't get over what a waste of time that event was. We still know no details about Apple's tv service. Except the name!

I think it’s a big missed opportunity ppl can’t get Apple Card immediately after the event.