“While Apple has long held a desire to rethink television, there has been one missing link: content,” Neil Cybart writes for Above Avalon. “This lack of content played a part in Apple initially positioning Apple TV as a hobby. Unattractive TV industry dynamics, including a problematic go-to-market strategy, played a much larger role.”
“Apple’s video content strategy is coming into focus, and the company’s plans look ambitious,” Cybart writes. “Management’s goal is to develop its own video service to distribute original content to more than a billion Apple devices. Apple will compete with Netflix and every other video content bundle. However, there will be a twist in Apple’s strategy.”
“When comparing Netflix and Apple Music paid subscribers, it becomes clear why using Apple Music as a type of incubator for Apple’s video streaming service ends up being such an interesting twist,” Cybart writes. “By using original video content to boost Apple Music, Apple already has nearly 20M paying viewers accessing that video content. This compares to Netflix’s 83M user count – not bad for a 16-month-old paid streaming service. As the amount of additional video content increases, Apple hopes this will further increase Apple Music subscriptions, thereby improving its video chances. Apple’s $3 billion Beats acquisition was a Trojan horse into Hollywood.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, using Apple Music as an incubator its subscriber base as leverage is indeed Apple’s plan. We’d like to see things with “Apple TV” (meaning the device and the idea of it on all Apple devices and throughout the ecosystem) move much more quickly than they have so far.
Apple should use their cash pile to create some much needed leverage to finally get their Apple TV subscription bundle(s) up and running even if all they do is flash their cash around. — MacDailyNews, January 14, 2016
Perhaps Cook should consider bidding for and winning NFL Sunday Ticket away from Direct TV, buying rights to Premiere League and La Liga games, etc. and making them Apple TV exclusives. Go directly to the sports leagues with boatlods of cash. Maybe that’ll grease the wheels. It’ll certainly move a bunch of Apple TV boxes around the world in short order. — MacDailyNews, May 6, 2014
Maybe it’s insurance in the face of recalcitrant content providers (“last chance: sign the deal or we’ll buy you with petty cash”)? — MacDailyNews, February 21, 2013
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s Eddy Cue: Nope, we don’t want to be Netflix – October 20, 2016
Apple’s Eddy Cue alienated cable providers and networks with an assertive negotiating style – report – July 28, 2016
How an ‘Apple Prime’ subscription could reinvigorate Apple – October 17, 2016