The shows “Carpool Karaoke” and ”Planet of the Apps,” Apple’s first attempt at Hollywood-style television programming, are currently being distributed at no charge to Apple Music members via the dedicated TV & Movies subsection within the Browse tab.
But that’s about to change soon.
According to a new report from Bloomberg today, the company’s upcoming original video programming won’t be streamed via Apple Music. The dedicated video section in the Music app and desktop iTunes will instead “limit its focus to music-related video.”
If Bloomberg is right, Apple may host its shows within a dedicated iTunes Store section.
Or, it could put out a standalone Apple Video streaming app. The report speculates that Apple may be planning to release the first few projects via its TV app, which doesn’t make much sense to me because the TV app simply aggregates content from third-party sources.
The truth is, Bloomberg continues, no one in Hollywood knows where the upcoming shows will be available to watch, how much they’ll cost or even how Apple will publicize them.
So far, Apple’s underwhelmed Hollywood as studios question if it has a clear strategy.
All this has led many producers to label Apple as conservative and picky. Some potential partners say they walk into Apple’s offices expecting to be blown away by the most successful consumer technology company in the world only to run up against the reality of dealing with a giant, cautious corporation taking its first steps into a new industry.
As we said before, Apple plans to spend $1 billion on TV shows over the next year.
The Cupertino firm in June hired a team led by veteran Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg that’s already bidding for projects against the biggest media companies in the world.
Earlier today, news broke that Tim Cook & Co. have enlisted talents of BBC TV executive Jay Hunt, who was chief creative officer at Channel 4. She is scheduled to start at Apple in January 2018, playing a vital role in the company’s international creative development team.
Last but not least, the technology giant apparently plans to hire at least 70 staffers, including development executives, publicists and marketers, to fill out its original content division as it looks to have “a small slate of shows” ready for release in 2019, according to Bloomberg.