Any streaming company that does not have a theatrical strategy, such as Apple, needs to get one, Steven Mallas writes for for Seeking Alpha. Apple can promote its Apple TV+ service via a multiplex slate, Mallas says, plus the company has the cash to invest billions in movies, as well as pursue significant acquisitions.
Steven Mallas for Seeking Alpha:
I’ve always said that companies such as Netflix, Apple, Amazon, and even Facebook, require theatrical strategies in addition to distribution of original content on digital platforms.
Apple definitely, and finally, needs to commence a theatrical strategy (a real one). It’s puzzling to me why the company hasn’t thus far.
Apple should move beyond streaming and scale up a movie-slate business for theatrical. Yes, even in this rough pandemic era. And it should consider the business a revenue stream of its own, even though it is obviously conceptually intertwined with Apple TV+.
A multiplex-focused strategy of major-studio-like, tentpole product, could easily become a thriving division of Apple. Once that is at scale, the tech giant’s streaming unit would be on the road toward paying long-promised dividends…
Apple could also get a better return on its cash (it held over $60 billion in cash/marketable securities as of Q3) by looking at acquisition candidates in the media industry. It could easily buy Lions Gate Entertainment, as a favorite example from the discussion section on some of my articles. Creating a startup studio internally and bolstering it with an acquisition would be a powerful combination…
Apple is ready for this because now that Apple TV+ is making some waves with its content (e.g., Ted Lasso, The Morning Show), it has the opportunity to build on that momentum. When Apple eventually releases a Marvel-like film that does Marvel-like numbers, it will sell Apple TV+ subscriptions, no question.
MacDailyNews Take: We continue to hear peeps that “a significant acquisition is coming; it’s not a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when'” from a little birdie. COVID-19 may have delayed things in that area for Apple, but some media-related Apple acquisition may be coming eventually.