Commentary

Apples Slashes Pricing For Apps To Lure Trad TV

Apple is making price cuts for TV/video companies in its App Store. Will that be enough to lure big TV/movie content owner to deal up with its overall TV strategy? Couldn’t hurt.

Apple will trim pricing for subscription video streaming apps to 15% from the current 30%. For a long time, Apple’s App Store, with nearly 2 million apps, has been a boon to TV-video producers -- big and small -- but carried a stiff price.

Executives believe this could accelerate Apple’s push for it big umbrella Apple TV effort, which looks to include a new app -- a digitally-delivered package of linear, live TV networks looking to compete with the big traditional pay TV services.

Apple has had some difficulty getting rights from programmers and broadcast networks for such a service, according to reports.

The App Store isn’t the only game town, of course. Android-based smartphone and tablet users have a number of options including Google Play and others; there are some 2.2 million Android apps.

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Yet for many TV producers, Apple may be a strong motivator for many consumers -- especially when it comes to their overall TV-video ecosystem. For example, it has the well-established Apple TV digital media player that provides mostly on-demand TV programming, which continues to have steady growth.

Historically, Apple has taken a big cut of the fees app owners charge to customers, all to push its premium service. But with other hardware sales slowing some -- including certain areas of iPhones, iPads and laptops -- Apple is looking to generate stronger growth when it comes to services, including those lucrative monthly TV subscription consumer fees.

Apple is in a hotly contested market to package linear-live TV networks, competing possibly with the likes Google, Hulu, Sony Playstation Vue, Amazon, Comcast and Dish Network’s Sling TV, among others.

A price cut sends a signal as new over-the-top (OTT) services are seen as a hot commodity for TV consumers.

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