Commentary
Apple To Produce Movies, Makes Apple Music More Competitive
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, January 13, 2017
Apple’s move doesn’t appear to be the second coming of a CBS, ABC, Fox, or Netflix and Hulu. Not even close.
Technology/digital device companies are getting into the content business -- movies and TV have been the topic of discussion in media and entertainment circles for years. But few real results have come to fruition.
Now take a step back: Look at TV channel distribution. Apple has all but abandoned plans to become another digital/virtual provider of TV networks -- a next-gen cable operator. Comcast has no worries here.
For a long time, it seemed to make sense to have content, distribution and digital device manufacturing under one roof. Only Sony has delved into all three -- but with uneven results.
The move by Apple, mostly now a digital device manufacturer, should be viewed therefore in a narrow context. Apple sees its Apple Music -- a $10 a month service -- as ready to take on Spotify. The motive may be to sell even more new iPhones and iPads in future years.
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Some of this started months ago, when Apple agreed to launch video-based music-oriented content, such as “Carpool Karaoke,” a popular segment on CBS’ “The Late, Late Show with James Corden.”
If you want to think more broadly for Apple -- if you dare -- when it comes to content production, perhaps only one new media distribution/technology company, which has successfully moved into the big leagues in recent years, comes to mind: Netflix.
Does Apple want to spend $6 billion in TV/movie development costs like Netflix will in 2017? And even then, it would need the right TV-movie development executives -- as well the strong stomach when it comes to notorious, unpredictable failure.
Apple has the bucks on hand to do battle -- some $216 billion in cash lying around, according to a number of estimates. But is this really their thing? Putting together a digital pay TV service of linear TV networks -- somewhat closer to their technology-centric business -- hasn’t worked as well.
So what’s left? Apple aficionados have one hope: Apple TV, its on-demand pay TV service, continues to score steady growth. But don’t think any farher ahead.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
Wayne,
As an avid music listener and subscriber of Apple Music myself, I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article.
I am amazed at how quickly Apple Music has developed throughout these last couple of years and have never had an issue pin-pointing an exact album that I wanted to find.
Many other streaming outlets such as Tidal and Spotify, seem to have less variety, due to licensing agreements between artists. I believe this has to do with the profitably which makes Apple a preferred outlet to artists due to the profitability from streaming, as well as giving fans the option to support and purchase the music digitally. I can attest for this as Apple Music has helped me discover many new incredible albums, which I have ended up buying in the past year on iTunes.
I am confident Apple is more than capable of carrying their success over with them into the movie streaming business. I think with the right partners, they have more than enough capital to buy out many original streaming-based series from major competitors like Netflix and Starz.
I firmly believe that with their current budget, they would be more than capable of building the largest streaming service in the market with by far the largest variety of shows/movies to view. I also think that a lot more films and television shows would be likely to license with Apple, if they allowed for the movies/shows to be bought through iTunes, similar to the set-up of Apple Music.
Overall, Apple always seems to be on top of the game with achieving popularity among consumers. I don't think we are too far off from seeing Apple dominate streaming services of popular television shows and movies, especially with a generation that is hooked on popular culture.