Apple enters the Original TV series business

[TheForce]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Apple Inc has ordered two seasons of a drama series that stars Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston and looks at the lives of people working on a morning television show, a company spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

The series is among the first projects the technology giant has acquired for its plunge into original television programming, where it aims to compete with established players such as Netflix Inc and Time Warner Inc’s HBO.

Apple spokeswoman Rita Cooper Lee also confirmed the company had ordered a remake of Steven Spielberg’s 1980s science fiction anthology series “Amazing Stories.” News of a potential deal for the Spielberg show had emerged in October.

It is unclear when the shows will be released or where viewers will be able to see them. Apple has not divulged if it will put its own TV series in the iTunes Store, where it sells shows made by other companies, or on another platform.

 

[harshness]

Asking people to buy an Apple TV is a very expensive dance card and there's still no way to court those with Amazon.

That's an exceedingly expensive cast for a television series. Aniston alone is ranked number two in earnings with about 25.5 million per year. Witherspoon has pulled down almost 200 million in her career and she got <5 million for HBO's Big Little Lies.

 

[TheForce]

Apple has made no announcements as to whether their venture into the production business will be limited to AppleTV device. It has historically limited it's quarterly report and other events to Apple platforms such as itunes on the PC or ipad Safari etc.

 

[klang]

I think it is unlikely Apple would limit the material to Apple TV. It would probably be available via iTunes and their TV app on iPhone and iPad.

 

[harshness]

Apple has made no announcements as to whether their venture into the production business will be limited to AppleTV device.

You missed the point. If the show is only available on iTunes, it is only going to be available on televisions equipped with an ATV (since ATV is the only easy way to get iTunes on a TV) and it is not good business to restrict distribution to a platform that has such limited penetration in the marketplace. You'll possibly recognize a similarity to the distribution of the new Star Trek series only to those who subscribe to CBS All Access.

I'm not sure the show's theme and its stars will appeal to those who favor watching TV on their devices.

 

[TheForce]

We'll see. No point in making wild extrapolations based on a supposition. Besides, so what if Apple limits the distribution. It isn't like they are suffering for growth these days. It has recently hit 900B in market cap making it the largest company in the world.

 

[Derwin0]

You missed the point. If the show is only available on iTunes, it is only going to be available on televisions equipped with an ATV (since ATV is the only easy way to get iTunes on a TV) and it is not good business to restrict distribution to a platform that has such limited penetration in the marketplace. You'll possibly recognize a similarity to the distribution of the new Star Trek series only to those who subscribe to CBS All Access.

CBS All Access actually has a leg up, as the CBS App is available on almost every setup box (xbox, tivo, ps3/4, etc...)

No way to easily connect an iphone/ipad to a tv

 

[lparsons21]

CBS All Access actually has a leg up, as the CBS App is available on almost every setup box (xbox, tivo, ps3/4, etc...)

No way to easily connect an iphone/ipad to a tv

The easiest way to do that is with an AppleTV!!

The CBS app is available on lots of set top boxes, but it is a twitchy app on the 3 things I have it on. ATV4 it works fine, ATV4K not so good, on the Android TV works fine. "works fine" means you can watch about 3 episodes before it starts buffering.

 

[Derwin0]

The easiest way to do that is with an AppleTV!!

Which very few people have. The Apple TV has pretty much been a flop, meanwhile pretty much everyone has an xbox, playstation, or roku.

 

[lparsons21]

Which very few people have. The Apple TV has pretty much been a flop, meanwhile pretty much everyone has an xbox, playstation, or roku.

With 20% of set top box sales, I? beg to differ.
Apple TV sales surge with hardware refresh, but still rank 4th in US streaming device market

 

[Foxbat]

No way to easily connect an iphone/ipad to a tv

The Lightning AV adapter works quite well, but you do have an HDMI cable stretching from your iDevice to your TV. That's pretty easy, and much less expensive than the Apple TV. But Apple TV is the easiest, I'll give you that.

Anyone with a Home Theater PC can run iTunes on that HTPC and that gets you Apple's content, too.

 

[klang]

The Lightning AV adapter works quite well, but you do have an HDMI cable stretching from your iDevice to your TV. That's pretty easy, and much less expensive than the Apple TV. But Apple TV is the easiest, I'll give you that.

Anyone with a Home Theater PC can run iTunes on that HTPC and that gets you Apple's content, too.

I didn't have much luck with the AV adapter to HDMI. I tried it in a motel a couple times. The apps I was trying to use said they didn't allow mirroring over HDMI.

 

[Derwin0]

The Lightning AV adapter works quite well, but you do have an HDMI cable stretching from your iDevice to your TV. That's pretty easy, and much less expensive than the Apple TV. But Apple TV is the easiest, I'll give you that.

Anyone with a Home Theater PC can run iTunes on that HTPC and that gets you Apple's content, too.

Most people do not go through that trouble. They want to use something that is already there, which is why most use their xbox or playstation to access things like netflix & hulu. Unless you can play apple stuff on those, then most won't.

 

[Derwin0]

With 20% of set top box sales, I? beg to differ.
Apple TV sales surge with hardware refresh, but still rank 4th in US streaming device market

That's only dedicated streaming devices, aka Roku, chromecast, and Firestick. 20% of that market is nothing compared to xbox, playstation, tivo, cable company boxes, etc...

 

[lparsons21]

That's only dedicated streaming devices, aka Roku, chromecast, and Firestick. 20% of that market is nothing compared to xbox, playstation, tivo, cable company boxes, etc...

But it does indicate that it is not a ‘flop’, which was your contention, and frankly the AppleTV, Roku, etc. are not in the same vein as cable and sat boxes of various kinds, even though some of them do some streaming.

Xbox and PlayStation are kind of in a market of their own. Both are primarily pushed to the gaming market, though both are also used in Home Theater. Would be interesting to know how big a percentage of their sales are going to home theater users vice the gamers.

 

[harshness]

Xbox and PlayStation are kind of in a market of their own. Both are primarily pushed to the gaming market, though both are also used in Home Theater. Would be interesting to know how big a percentage of their sales are going to home theater users vice the gamers.

The buzz makes it seem like Apple is looking to attract a certain level of gaming audience with the ATV4K. Of course they haven't actually gone there so it remains to be seen if it was just wishful thinking.

That Apple users spend twice the money for essentially the same stuff is why I invested in Apple stock. It is one of a small number of logic-based investment theories of mine that seems to have paid off.

 

[lparsons21]

I’m not a gamer, well not a serious one anyway. I? think Apple is looking at the casual gamer market and there are some game apps available though I? haven’t really looked at any to know how good/bad they are.

I’ve got a Samsung KW950 ATMOS soundbar and have been giving some serious looks at the Xbox One because it supports it and also will ‘convert’ 5.1 to some simulated ATMOS setup. Just have to figure out if ATMOS is worth about $250 or not...

 

[harshness]

I’m not a gamer, well not a serious one anyway.

I didn't suggest that you were but that's what the ATV is going to have to bring to make it stand out above the rest of the well-established players at the price point that they're asking.

The people that I work with that have ATVs use them mostly as Airplay interfaces (since Lightning adapters have occasionally left them high and dry -- the kind of thing that you're not supposed to suffer within the "ecosystem").

 

[Derwin0]

But it does indicate that it is not a ‘flop’, which was your contention, and frankly the AppleTV, Roku, etc. are not in the same vein as cable and sat boxes of various kinds, even though some of them do some streaming.

Xbox and PlayStation are kind of in a market of their own. Both are primarily pushed to the gaming market, though both are also used in Home Theater. Would be interesting to know how big a percentage of their sales are going to home theater users vice the gamers.

It shows they are a 4th place finisher in a niche market. If they limit their stuff onto that one device, in a market owned by Roku, and a market that is dwarfed by the game console market for the same use, then there's no one available to watch their shows.

Now apple could surprise us and make their showed available on other devices, but with their track record, I doubt it.

 

[lparsons21]

And when the dust settles with Apple yet again making money on that niche, what will be the story then? Remember Apple has been considered a niche player in the computer market, yet they make the most money.