Scaling Back Apple TV+ Content
Apple is in active talks to license more films from major Hollywood studios as it seeks to bolster Apple TV+, according to Bloomberg.
Apple has traditionally focused on original productions for its streaming platform, but it is increasingly looking to expand its offerings by acquiring programming from the extensive libraries of established studios, sources familiar with the matter claim.
Hartley Charlton (Hacker News):
Apple is scaling back its Hollywood spending after investing over $20 billion in original programming with limited success, Bloomberg reports.
This shift comes after the streaming service, which launched in 2019, struggled to capture a significant share of the market, accounting for only 0.2% of TV viewership in the U.S., compared to Netflix’s 8%. Despite heavy investment, critical acclaim, and numerous award nominations, Apple TV+ purportedly generates less viewing in one month than Netflix does in a single day.
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The company’s new strategy is said to involve tighter budget controls and a more cautious approach to spending. This includes paying less upfront for shows, being quicker to cancel underperforming series, and delaying productions to manage costs better.
The report doesn’t say what the revenue is.
I still find it frustrating that so many billions were spent on this and the car project when so many parts of Apple’s operating systems, apps, and developer services seem under-resourced.
This one, I’d argue, has just as much to do with Apple being awful at marketing their content. Which is wild given that it’s Apple! The company perhaps best known for its marketing prowess – of any company in the world! They can’t seem to crack the Hollywood nut here for whatever reason. This is anecdotal, but no one seemed to know about Fly Me to the Moon. You obviously won’t go to see what you don’t even know is out. Again, in those old days people would go to see whatever was playing. That’s not the case any longer.
Over the past 5y, I have been spammed non stop with “free trials” in the system and the TV app constantly default to the Apple TV+ service tab instead of my library.
Also saw ads for Apple TV+ on multiple websites.
It seems like owning the platform hasn’t helped as much as people expected.
I talk around these parts ad nauseam about how the quality of the Apple TV+ content is actually quite strong. Pound-for-pound, they may even be the best right now given that Warner Bros Discovery has merged HBO into the Max machine. But it sounds like even Apple, the most valuable and profitable company in the world, has to answer to the ROI gods[…]
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It would be very interesting to know if and how Apple actually tracks such things. Fittingly, a WSJ report from yesterday about Amazon’s Alexa/Echo spend is predicated around “DSI” or “downstream impact” – that is the notion that you shouldn’t just measure the revenue brought in from device sales, but also how those devices impact tangential sales for Amazon. The article is about how after years of such metrics covering Alexa’s ass, Andy Jassy has thrown it out in order to try to turn Alexa into an actual business. Will Apple eventually feel the same? Do they already, hence the belt tightening?
Amazon lost $5B a year on Alexa devices between 2017 and 2021 with 10,000 people working on it.
After a decade, voice has not become the next major software platform nor has Alexa helped Amazon’s retail business. It’s instead been a massive money losing business for Amazon.
With Bezos gone, Andy Jassy has cranked up the pressure on Amazon’s devices businesses to focus on profitability. It’s since been hit by multiple layoffs and product cancellations.
Previously:
- Apple Cancels Car Project
- Netflix Ads, Password Sharing, and DVDs
- iOS Announcements and Offers
- Amazon Alexa to Lose $10 Billion This Year
Update (2024-07-30): Benjamin Mayo:
The really interesting thing about Apple TV+ is that it is not so unsuccessful that it can be called a failure, and yet is also not so successful that it can be heralded as a home run win. It sits in a murky grey area, where no one is quite sure whether Apple is happy with its progress. Some days, I wonder if even Apple themselves can define what the success metrics for TV+ are meant to be.
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Makes sense. IMHO, Apple was more focused on signing famous stars for their movies/shows than producing good content. I have been a "subscriber" off and on via free offers. I don't find Apple TV+ content compelling enough to actually pay for the service.
This is so interesting to me, because I find Apple TV+ to be the only service worth paying for. HBO is in a race to the bottom now (I guess to compete with Netflix?). Netflix probably has some gems, but they are so buried in shit that it's impossible to find them, and it's ridiculously expensive on top of that. Disney is probably great if you have kids, but if you don't, their stuff is getting worse and worse and they've leaned in so far to over saturating their big franchises that I don't know if they are even capable of original ideas anymore. Amazon was maybe second place IMHO, but just the principle of charging extra now to continue to have no ads turned me off completely.
> I still find it frustrating that so many billions were spent on this and the car project
In 2 more years, we can probably add the Vision Pro to the list. And in 4, maybe Apple Intelligence.
I'm frustrated by all of them. I have TV+, Hulu, and Amazon Prime... yet 9 times out of 10 when I want to watch a movie, none of them have it. I'm paying $20+ per month for streaming, but nearly every movie is "rent or buy".
Apple should never have entered the TV market (IMHO) because it isn't an industry which works with they do. Apple, traditionally, has come in to an industry with the best quality product, and has charged high fees, with high margins. And that has allowed them to continue to make the products better faster than the competition (this is idealized, we all know Apple’s quality is not always as great as it could be).
A movie/TV studio could work this way, but streaming TV doesn't. Apple TV+ content is some of the best quality content available - but there just is not nearly enough of it. I can watch 6+ months of new Apple TV+ content in a month, so why both subscribing more than a month or two each year.
Like Dropbox, Apple TV+ is a feature not a platform - it should be a premium channel on another streaming platform. Financially, it should have an annual subscription so you can't just subscribe for a month.
@Ben Yeah, it used to be (back in the disc days) that Netflix had almost everything. Now, it’s complicated to search all the services and often we end up just buying from iTunes.
What a bummer that these companies have a bottomless well of money to spend on whatever amazing thing they want to make, but all they want to make is a bigger number for their earnings per share.
As a non-American, I find the constant "AppleTV+ is the highest quality content" to be puzzling. What "quality" does it have the "most" of?
Perhaps the locals don't see it, but AppleTV+ is *nauseatingly* Apple Pie & Fourth of July American. It has this weird morning newstainment presenter with too much makeup vibe.
Also, the actual AppleTV+ app on an AppleTV, is the least stable streaming app. It was constantly losing my play progress, crashing, refusing to load content.
@ someone: As a German, I find that Apple TV+’s sci-fi content (FAM, Silo, Severance, …) is second to none. Other genres, perhaps not so much. But generally, I’d say their hit rate is quite high.
Streaming can only get worse. It's the perfect storm of things working against it.
The more entrants, the worse it becomes for subscribers. They will either miss out on more shows/films or pay an ever increasing price.
Everything is content now as Patrick Willems says in his great youtube video with that title. Apple TV+ like Hulu, Netflix etc are just brands looking to have a great offer. What's actually showing is of less importance. Watch his video, it's great.
Walled gardens ahoy, it doesn't matter that For All Mankind is great (so I've heard from a few sources I trust), I can't see it for myself. Sopranos, Friends, Game of Thrones, Twin Peaks, they were all available in multiple countries for free for anyone with a TV. I could see an episode or two, and if I loved it and wanted to go back to the beginning I couldbuy a DVD or BlueRay box.
Now I need to hand over my credit card info to get a free month that will auto renew (for my benefit lol)
No. One. Can. Guarantee. A. Hit.
Remember when Netflix bragged about how their algorithms could create hits? How they didn't have to take any chances? Hahahaha, what a load of investor bait that was. So Apple are jumping on every award winning sci-fi novel they can find. Problem is that anyone with a genuine interest have read the books already and don't need to see them ruined by a bunch of design by committee adaptations.
So this isn't going anywhere but down. Companies got blinded by Netflix success, that was only possible because they had a monopoly for a while.
>> I still find it frustrating that so many billions were spent on this and the car project
> In 2 more years, we can probably add the Vision Pro to the list. And in 4, maybe Apple Intelligence.
I don't think Apple will spend anything near a billion on Apple Intelligence. They seem to have gauged it quite right. Do the bare minimum with some strategic partnerships, and don't bet the farm on this version of "ai".
I was never a fan of the move, I'm not a big fan of companies becoming the content providers for a hardware platform. Separation is better in my opinion. They tend to make worse decisions in that mode.
@Someone As another non-American, I tend to agree. I haven't watched much Apple Original content, but there's quite a bit of americanism in what I've seen.
[Side note: I just meant to say "Apple original", as a common noun, but the system automatically capitalized the O. It's always funny to me how much effort Apple goes through to make sure their users are properly referring to their trademarks. Did you know their platforms will also de-capitalize "Mini" in "iPad mini", and will capitalize "Plus" in "iPhone 14 Plus", but as of macOS 14.5 they haven't yet added "iPhone 15 Pro/Plus" to the list? This can also misfire if your language happens to have "pro" as common preposition.]
>I still find it frustrating that so many billions were spent on this and the car project when so many parts of Apple’s operating systems, apps, and developer services seem under-resourced.
Not only has the efficiency of dollar spend dropped dramatically since Steve passed away, the allocation of resources is also wrong in many places. Apple TV+, Fitness, Arcade, News, Music. All in the name of pushing for Services Revenue. And apart from Music which barely get a pass grade, others are not so much of success in my view.
