Mike Wuerthele
According to a report on Thursday, Apple is considering making deals with Pac-12 and MGM to acquire content to bolster Apple TV+.
While there are presently no large studio catalogs or live sports on Apple TV+, if Thursday's report is accurate, Apple may be looking at acquiring some. According to the Wall Street Journal executives at Apple had meetings with MGM and Pac-12 officials.
It isn't yet clear how far along the meetings were, beyond "preliminary." The meetings were reportedly attended by Apple's head of mergers and acquisitions Adrian Perica, according to the Wall Street Journal report on Thursday. The meetings were said to have been held in February 2019, when MGM was looking for a distribution parter for its cable channel Epix.
MGM's Epix was founded in April 2008, in a joint effort between Paramount Pictures, MGM, Lionsgate, and Showtime. The network launched in October 2009, with a heavy promotional push by Verizon. It has since expanded to most of the cable networks
In 2016 and 2017, business complications and mergers threatened Epix. MGM bought out Paramount/Viacom's and Lionsgate's shares for just over $1 billion, giving it sole control of the network.
After months of promotion, Apple's first foray into video streaming, Apple TV+, launched on November 1. Apple TV+ is available in more than 100 countries and regions, with originals subtitled or dubbed in nearly 40 languages, including Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing (SDH) or closed captions, Apple says. Audio descriptions for select series and movies will be available in eight languages.
Customers who have purchased an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, or iPod touch after Sept. 10, 2019, are eligible for a year of free Apple TV+. Signing up is as simple as opening the TV app on the latest version of iOS, iPadOS, macOS or tvOS, and agreeing to Apple's terms and conditions. The app might request a valid Apple ID for redemption and initiation.
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24 Comments
Buy an NFL & NBA team instead.
When I can pay per view for games currently on CBS, Fox or ESPN without supporting the endless gossip programming that passes for “sports” I will be interested. I watch a handful of College FB and BB games and little else, sports wise.
What I don’t get is all the launch shows are pretty much finishing up now with their first seasons. See already finished as it had less episodes. Almost nothing else started in between so it seems unless Apple has some surprise launches, they won’t have hardly any new content going up weekly soon.
I mean I’ve got it free with a new iPhone so it’s not costing me anything. It’s not expensive really once you have to pay but they really will need to get more content fast for it to be worth even the price they want at the moment.
Yeah but truth be told and Hala just arent that compelling. I get that TV+ is trying to be upmarket because of the paucity of content, and well, Apple. However being a small and limited streaming version of PBS isn’t going to encourage people to start paying for a subscription. There is a void.