{"id":44197,"date":"2024-07-23T15:34:16","date_gmt":"2024-07-23T19:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=44197"},"modified":"2024-07-30T14:22:25","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T18:22:25","slug":"scaling-back-apple-tv-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2024\/07\/23\/scaling-back-apple-tv-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Scaling Back Apple TV+ Content"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hartley Charlton<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Apple is in active talks to license more films from major Hollywood studios as it seeks to bolster Apple TV+, according to Bloomberg<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Hartley Charlton<\/a> (Hacker News<\/a>):<\/p>\n

Apple is scaling back its Hollywood spending after investing over $20 billion in original programming with limited success, Bloomberg<\/em><\/a> reports.<\/p>

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.<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

The report doesn’t say what the revenue is.<\/p>\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n

M.G. Siegler<\/a>:<\/p>\n

This one, I’d argue<\/a>, 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<\/a> here for whatever reason. This is anecdotal<\/a>, but no one seemed to know about Fly Me to the Moon<\/em>. 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.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Damien Petrilli<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

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.<\/p>\n

Also saw ads for Apple TV+ on multiple websites.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

It seems like owning the platform hasn’t helped as much as people expected.<\/p>\n\n

M.G. Siegler<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I talk around these parts ad nauseam about how the quality of the Apple TV+ content is actually quite strong<\/a>. 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[…]<\/p>

[…]<\/p>

It would be very interesting to know if and how Apple actually tracks such things. Fittingly, a WSJ<\/em> report from yesterday<\/a> 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?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n

Dare Obasanjo<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Amazon lost $5B a year on Alexa devices between 2017 and 2021 with 10,000 people working on it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n