Mike Wuerthele
In the wake of "Carpool Karaoke" and "Planet of the Apps," a new report suggests that Apple may be looking at expanding unique scripted content, to draw users to the iTunes and iPhone ecosystems, and boost Apple Music subscriptions
According to the Wall Street Journal, and "people familiar with the matter", Apple is planning to build a "significant new business" in original programming, including serialized drama and feature-length pieces. Reportedly, the content would be made available to subscribers to Apple Music.
The report claims that Apple has been negotiating with producers in recent months to purchase the rights for scripted television, as well as examining marketing executives to see if they were willing to come on board to help promote Apple-distributed content.
According to the Hollywood sources, Apple is seeking to offer the content before the end of 2017.
Potentially holding up any deals, the same Hollywood sources claim that Apple is still working out details of a business strategy built around the content. Apple has reportedly told producers that it would share details on how many people are watching the content, data that Netflix does not reveal.
Apple has three projects underway for unique, if not necessarily scripted, video content.
On Tuesday, the "Carpool Karaoke" spinoff had some details revealed by the producers. The first batch of 16 episodes will features Metallica, John Legend, Alicia Keys, and Ariana Grande in four episodes, with more announcements yet to come.
Apple's "Planet of the Apps" reality show was scheduled to start filming in Los Angeles in late 2016, and continue through early 2017. The show will feature developers cranking out apps for the program, and highlight not only the development process but also any deal-making that goes on between the coders and producers Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am, and Jessica Alba, amongst others.
Few details are known about semi-biographical "Vital Signs," which has been in production for some time. The series is said to be six episodes long, each running for 30 minutes, chronicling Dr. Dre's rise through fictional vignettes.
"The Score" from Vice media debuted in March 2016, and covered local music scenes throughout the world. And the documentary "808: The Movie" premiered on Apple Music in December.
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22 Comments
Absolute waste of time, talent, top management bandwidth, and money, if true. Imho.
This is is far removed from Apple's core competency.
How can one watch Planet of the Apps? It doesn't show up in the tv app when I search.
Apple have the deepest pockets, but for some reason they don't want to use it. Like it or not, Apple will have to get into content, there is no way around it. Like Netflix realized in 2012 when it was time to negotiate for contents, prices went through the roof, which is why they later got into content creation themselves. Apple keep delaying that decision and it's going to cost them dearly in that arena. They have been in negotiation with content owners since 2010 and they have nothing to show for it, simply because they do not want to get into anything that's not profitable.
Look around, they are cutting and abandoning every business that's not big money maker for them, like routers, displays etc. Tim Cook was a great Coo, those same skills do not translate well as a Ceo. Apple lately is all about counting pennies and stretching that dollar as much as possible. How do you justify that when you are the biggest and most profitable company around? Les Moon from CBS said as much on cnbc two years ago. He said money is the reason Apple can't make deals. Apple have to realize they do not have the same leverage they had when they negotiated with the music industry. They will have to pay and even overpay for some stuff, that's the price of admission to enter this enter and play this game.