“Apple may soon find itself playing the role of producer of original video programming, according to a new report,” Steven Musil reports for CNET.
“The Cupertino tech giant has held meetings with Hollywood executives in recent weeks to gauge their interest in helping make original movies and TV shows, producing content that would challenge offerings from Netflix and Amazon Prime, Variety reports,” Musil reports. “The Apple unit reportedly handling the discussions reports to Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of Internet software and services.”
“The company hopes to begin the hiring process soon for development and production divisions that would begin creating long-form content by next year. Original movies and TV shows would be a valuable component in a Web-based subscription TV service Apple is said to have been working on,” Musil reports. “Original content offers is seen as a differentiator among the myriad streaming services to lure new customers. Netflix and Amazon Prime already offer a slate of original programming, and on Sunday Netflix announced it would not renew its five-year movie licensing pact with Epix so it could focus on creating original movies.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take:
Apple certainly has the cash to produce some compelling content exclusively for Apple TV. — MacDailyNews Take, July 20, 2015
SEE ALSO:
Apple exploring entry into original entertainment production – August 31, 2015
Boy if music egos weren’t bad enough……..have fun with the acting community divas…..
They already have HBO Go…..just work out a content deal with HBO original programming….
99% of what’s on TV is utter dreck at best. Funny how three channels running from daylight to midnight back in my youth had better quality programming than hundreds of channels do today.
“Green Acres” was the best of all of ’em.
That comedy was so far ahead of its time. Hank Kimball rocked!
Mr. Haney was a god.
Willlbuurrrr!
I grew up to Hee-Haw, Lawrence Welk and the news as Sunday only options. Oh Boy! While I agree, more channels equals more opportunity to produce manure programming, I don’t think I would equate yesteryear as “better quality programming”, but rather there was no opportunity due to lack of hundreds of channels. If you were to have had hundreds of channels back when you were a youth, you would have had an early start to the “utter dreck”.
The fantastical ideas that people have. Apple will soon become a cliche for every farfetched scheme and absolute fiction. It seems that Apple is seriously considering “fill in the blank” without a shred of evidence. It’s pathetic. No one has yet explained how Apple’s change in products or services will impact Apple’s ability to develop, deliver, and maintain current products and services.
I agree with what you say. It’s disgusting. Bloggers and the so-called news media constantly talks about what Apple is going to do and how it’s going to change this or that. It’s like they just make up their own stories to fit their imagination. Apple hasn’t said anything about anything and yet all these stories are showing up.
You’d never see this crap for companies like Boeing or ExxonMobil. It’s as though these bloggers only want to name-drop Apple to get some attention. I had no idea writers simply create fiction and pass them off as news.
This move should have happened years ago. I do believe Apple can catch up to Amazon and Netflix though. Amazon’s Prime Streaming content is great, but the Web and iOS Interface are mind numbing.
Netflix will be tough to compete with but if anyone can do it…
This will probably explains the lack of an Amazon App on the Apple TV also. Long term planning.
Soon the modern equivalent of The Big Three will NOT be ABC NBC and CBS. Halleluah.
Just buy Disney. Problem solved.
+ 1 and then some
Imagine, Apple and Star Wars, against CBS and Star Trek…
Just saying
Someone suggested in that other thread on the same subject that Apple may be the one fanning these rumours as a bluff against the large media and cable operators. If they don’t budge in the current negotiations on AppleTV content, the rumour is there to threaten them that Apple would simply start producing their own content, siphoning viewers away and racking up their own Emmys.
While it is possible that the rumour is just a bluff, I doubt it. Media companies must be made to believe Apple is dead serious about producing its own content. This shouldn’t be hard to do; with tons of money, creative management team and plenty of solid fans in the Southern California, it should be easy to attract top Hollywood talent to an Apple-branded production shingle.
My own expectation for how the tings will go down is this: in the near future, there will be no originally produced content by Apple; instead, existing content producers (TV networks and studios) will cave and sign a distribution deal for AppleTV (and iTunes), making Apple one of the most powerful virtual cable TV operators. Several years down the road, once Apple poaches large percentage of traditional cable TV customers, they may even decide to actually go into production of their own exclusive content (like Netflix, or Amazon). But for now, a mere threat of such action should be enough to force current content players to cave in.
Well done Pedrag. Apple doesn’t need to become a production company, just the money (traditional network function) behind them Only instead of appealing to the lowest common denominator (eyeballs equal advertising revenue), Apple supports productions like Law and Order, Nand of Brothers, Sopranos, etc and draws viewers willing to pay a premium for suh content.
Let the networks have Real Housewives of …, Swamp People, Duck Dynasty America’s Funniest Videos, etc., and anything that requires a laugh track.
I’d pay $40 a month for that, long before I’d pay $20 for HBO on top of cable company’s required 700 channel $150/month packages.
If Apple does this the exodus of premium cable channels from a cable company distribution model to Apple TV model will be dramatic.
Predrag nailed it. And think about it, 4K is like the introduction of color; why broadcast it if no one has the sets? And why by the color set if there is no programming? NBC broke through the chicken & egg cycle with Disney’s Wonderful World of Color. It’s easy to imagine that Apple will create huge buzz for 4K *and* be positioned to deliver content. Short term, they’ll show us how to make amazing 4K home movies.
Great pro social agenda content just whats lacking in TV
Why would Apple want to make their own movies and TV shows?
Education of the proletariat.
I have mixed feelings about this. If they control things too much they could drain the life out of things.
On the other hand, they might have the desire to make things that are really good. Maybe they could partner with the BBC to produce some excellent dramas. Maybe they could produce something like Nova that would really teach you about science, math and engineering without sounding breathless and shocking like the Discovery channel.