Malcolm Owen
Apple is continuing to fill out its catalog of content for its soon-to-launch Apple TV+ streaming service, with its latest move being a multi-year deal with 'Fargo' TV producer and screenwriter Monica Beletsky.
Creating a streaming video service requires more long-term planning than just creating launch content, something Apple knows well enough to make the company sign more deals with industry heavyweights and other creators. The iPhone maker's latest move is to sign up Monica Beletsky for a multi-year period of exclusivity to Apple TV+.
The terms of the deal has Beletsky developing TV series for Apple, reports SF Gate, with it being the first major exclusivity deal for the producer in her career.
Beletsky is known for being a writer and producer, who has previously worked on FX's "Fargo" as well as the acclaimed "Friday Night Lights" and "Parenthood." Both of the latter two shows had Beletsky working alongside Jason Katims and Kerry Ehrin, who both already have similar deals with Apple.
The producer is also working on developing two films with Hello Sunshine, a production company owned by Reese Witherspoon. Hello Sunshine is also connected to a number of other Apple TV+ projects, including one of its headline offerings "The Morning Show."
The deal is the latest for Apple as it tries to secure content producers before other streaming media giants like Netflix and Amazon, as well as major studios, pick them up with their own exclusivity deals. On Wednesday, Netflix advised the proliferation of streaming services will "accelerate the shift from linear TV to on-demand consumption," but traditional television will continue to be the biggest competition to any streaming service for the moment.
Apple will be launching Apple TV+ on November 1, with a large raft of content including "Dickinson," "The Morning Show," and the alternate-reality space race drama "For All Mankind." The service will cost $4.99 per month, but it will be free for a year for customers who buy select Apple hardware.
Wesley Hilliard
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11 Comments
Smart way to go, lock up the writers themselves if you can convince them rather than show by show.
Amazon just paid fifty million for the woman who scripted Killing Eve and Fleabag
Money well spent if you ask me.
So she did one Hollywood movie and a scripted a couple of TV shows - how much original content did she create? There is a big difference between writing episodes for a show developed by others and creating original content from jump street.
Phoebe Waller-Bridge is an amazing talent. Killing Eve and Fleabag were brilliant. I hope she can maintain that level of quality content.
I don't know that she could work for Apple, given the content she produces. Wickedly funny, very nuanced, insightful, but a little-- intense for Apple's consideration.
But Amazon's investment makes me even happier that I'm a Prime member. I wonder if there was a bidding war (or skirmish) or if Amazon just plunked down a big ol' bag of money and said 'Here, do what you want'.
I hope Apple can build a competitive catalog of content. I want to see For All Mankind and See, but nothing else they've got so far seems to interest me. That could change for me, once they go live.