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AppleTV+
With a small market share, what next for Apple’s streaming service?
WRITTEN BY DAVID CROOKES
Image credit: Apple Inc
Image credit: Apple Inc
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Apple TV+ is successful.
A
Creatively, at least. In July, Zack Van Amburg, Apple’s
head of Worldwide Video, proudly responded to the streaming service’s 72 Emmy Award nominations across 16 shows. “It has been an immensely rewarding morning,” he said, going some way towards justifying the $20 billion Apple has spent on original programming so far.
Yet all is not entirely well. That huge sum has paid for a relatively small number of shows, certainly when compared to Apple TV+’s rivals, notably Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime. From the start, Apple decided to go for quality over quantity, yet despite spending big to snap up high-profile talent, the service has only a 0.2% share of TV viewing in the US. Apple is now reassessing its strategy.
According to a report by Bloomberg, Van Amburg and his fellow studio chief Jamie Erlicht have been regularly meeting with Apple services boss Eddy Cue. It would appear there is growing concern the company is being seen as a cash-cow that’s happy to throw money at projects it deems worthy.
This had led to the streaming service spending $6.5 billion on television programming and $1 billion on creating movies for cinemas, with the second season of Severance costing more than $20 million per episode alone. There is now a desire to reign in spending and axe shows that aren’t working, Bloomberg says – but what does this mean for the future of the service?