Apple negotiating to expand scripted programming in 2017 for Apple Music - report

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited January 2017
In the wake of "Carpool Karaoke" and "Planet of the Apps," a new report suggests that Apple may be looking at expanding unique scripted content, to draw users to the iTunes and iPhone ecosystems, and boost Apple Music subscriptions




According to the Wall Street Journal, and "people familiar with the matter", Apple is planning to build a "significant new business" in original programming, including serialized drama and feature-length pieces. Reportedly, the content would be made available to subscribers to Apple Music.

The report claims that Apple has been negotiating with producers in recent months to purchase the rights for scripted television, as well as examining marketing executives to see if they were willing to come on board to help promote Apple-distributed content.

According to the Hollywood sources, Apple is seeking to offer the content before the end of 2017.

Potentially holding up any deals, the same Hollywood sources claim that Apple is still working out details of a business strategy built around the content. Apple has reportedly told producers that it would share details on how many people are watching the content, data that Netflix does not reveal.




Apple has three projects underway for unique, if not necessarily scripted, video content.

On Tuesday, the "Carpool Karaoke" spinoff had some details revealed by the producers. The first batch of 16 episodes will features Metallica, John Legend, Alicia Keys, and Ariana Grande in four episodes, with more announcements yet to come.

Apple's "Planet of the Apps" reality show was scheduled to start filming in Los Angeles in late 2016, and continue through early 2017. The show will feature developers cranking out apps for the program, and highlight not only the development process but also any deal-making that goes on between the coders and producers Gwyneth Paltrow, will.i.am, and Jessica Alba, amongst others.

Few details are known about semi-biographical "Vital Signs," which has been in production for some time. The series is said to be six episodes long, each running for 30 minutes, chronicling Dr. Dre's rise through fictional vignettes.

"The Score" from Vice media debuted in March 2016, and covered local music scenes throughout the world. And the documentary "808: The Movie" premiered on Apple Music in December.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    Absolute waste of time, talent, top management bandwidth, and money, if true. Imho. 

    This is is far removed from Apple's core competency. 
    calidoozydozen
  • Reply 2 of 22
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    sog35 said:
    Nice.  Its time for Apple to buy some content.

    1. Tron - Disney pretty much gave up on this property when they bought Starwars

    2. Competitive Gaming - this will explode in 5 years. Milenials and younger love watching people play games. Apple will need to overpay now, but it will be a bargain 5 years from now

    3. Super hero's from alternate labels (not Marvel or DC)

    4. and the BIG ONE........................J.R.R. Tolken's Silmarillion. Apple should pay MASSIVE bucks for these rights and make it into a TV series. There is so much content in the Silmarilion, it could cover 10 seasons of shows EASILY. They just have to wait till Tolken's son to cease control of the estate. Then offer the estate $200 million for the rights.
    It'll cost more than that. 
  • Reply 3 of 22
    How can one watch Planet of the Apps? It doesn't show up in the tv app when I search.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    Apple have the deepest pockets, but for some reason they don't want to use it.  Like it or not, Apple will have to get into content, there is no way around it.  Like Netflix realized in 2012 when it was time to negotiate for contents, prices went through the roof, which is why they later got into content creation themselves.  Apple keep delaying that decision and it's going to cost them dearly in that arena.  They have been in negotiation with content owners since 2010 and they have nothing to show for it, simply because they do not want to get into anything that's not profitable.

    Look around, they are cutting and abandoning every business that's not big money maker for them, like routers, displays etc.  Tim Cook was a great Coo, those same skills do not translate well as a Ceo.  Apple lately is all about counting pennies and stretching that dollar as much as possible.  How do you justify that when you are the biggest and most profitable company around?  Les Moon from CBS said as much on cnbc two years ago.  He said money is the reason Apple can't make deals.  Apple have to realize they do not have the same leverage they had when they negotiated with the music industry.  They will have to pay and even overpay for some stuff, that's the price of admission to enter this enter and play this game.
  • Reply 5 of 22
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    Absolute waste of time, talent, top management bandwidth, and money, if true. Imho. 

    This is is far removed from Apple's core competency. 
    Yes, like music players, phones, online music stores, energy production…
    calidoozydozen
  • Reply 6 of 22
    Absolute waste of time, talent, top management bandwidth, and money, if true. Imho. 

    This is is far removed from Apple's core competency. 
    Create an arms length subsidiary, move Eddy Cue to LA and have him run it. Hire a new SVP to take over iCloud, Siri and Maps. That might work.




    image
    anantksundaramcalidoozydozen
  • Reply 7 of 22
    sog35 said:
    Anything that strengthens the stickiness of the iOS ecosystem is not a waste of money.

    This is what a lot of folks tend to miss, when you have an ecosystem to maintain you need to do all those things to keep that ecosystem healthy and in place.  Otherwise folks will start to leave that gated community of yours for bigger and better options.  Since Apple ecosystem is a close one, meaning Apple controls everything they need to do even more of those things.  Which is why I pull my hair out when folks keep talking about "Why are they doing this?" "Who watches reality tv shows?.  You may not watch it, but the numbers tell us a large portion of the population do, and if Apple close ecosystem do not give them that option, then they will take their business elsewhere. 
    edited January 2017 cali
  • Reply 8 of 22
    sog35 said:
    Absolute waste of time, talent, top management bandwidth, and money, if true. Imho. 

    This is is far removed from Apple's core competency. 
    Anything that strengthens the stickiness of the iOS ecosystem is not a waste of money.


    Right now Eddy Cue's org is the one that needs the most attention and he has too much on his plate as it is. If they hire someone else to take over iCloud, maps and Siri then fine.
    cali
  • Reply 9 of 22
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    sog35 said:
    Rayz2016 said:
    sog35 said:
    Nice.  Its time for Apple to buy some content.

    1. Tron - Disney pretty much gave up on this property when they bought Starwars

    2. Competitive Gaming - this will explode in 5 years. Milenials and younger love watching people play games. Apple will need to overpay now, but it will be a bargain 5 years from now

    3. Super hero's from alternate labels (not Marvel or DC)

    4. and the BIG ONE........................J.R.R. Tolken's Silmarillion. Apple should pay MASSIVE bucks for these rights and make it into a TV series. There is so much content in the Silmarilion, it could cover 10 seasons of shows EASILY. They just have to wait till Tolken's son to cease control of the estate. Then offer the estate $200 million for the rights.
    It'll cost more than that. 
    More than $200 million for the rights to the Silmarillion?
    So far, the franchise has raked in $6billion in revenue… and counting. I don't think $200million is going to cover it for the Silmarillion. 


  • Reply 10 of 22
    Absolute waste of time, talent, top management bandwidth, and money, if true. Imho. 

    This is is far removed from Apple's core competency. 
    Create an arms length subsidiary, move Eddy Cue to LA and have him run it. Hire a new SVP to take over iCloud, Siri and Maps. That might work.




    image
    Something like that would make far more sense. 
    apple jockeycali
  • Reply 11 of 22
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    How can one watch Planet of the Apps? It doesn't show up in the tv app when I search.
    It's not airing yet.
    calidoozydozen
  • Reply 12 of 22
    xylifyx2xylifyx2 Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    Are they going to expand Apple script? Will it be extended to iOS as well. About bloody time I would say.
  • Reply 13 of 22
    Spencer ReynoldsSpencer Reynolds Posts: 1unconfirmed, member
    It'll be great, you will only need the special Apple iGlasses to watch, $49.99, available at the Apple Store, but they will be replaced with a new one every year. They are also discussing holding the final 5 mins of every show until you pay them $5 to see the end.
  • Reply 14 of 22
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    toukale said:
    Apple have the deepest pockets, but for some reason they don't want to use it.  Like it or not, Apple will have to get into content, there is no way around it.  Like Netflix realized in 2012 when it was time to negotiate for contents, prices went through the roof, which is why they later got into content creation themselves.  Apple keep delaying that decision and it's going to cost them dearly in that arena.
    Er, how will it cost them dearly in the streaming arena (Netflix's business) when Apple isn't in that arena? Apple provides the best in class hardware consumers use to access content via apps. I use an ATV to access Netflix, Showtime, etc. 
    cali
  • Reply 15 of 22
    StrangeDaysStrangeDays Posts: 12,844member
    It'll be great, you will only need the special Apple iGlasses to watch, $49.99, available at the Apple Store, but they will be replaced with a new one every year. They are also discussing holding the final 5 mins of every show until you pay them $5 to see the end.
    Wait, I thought the hater narrative was that Apple doesnt release hardware often enough?
    cali
  • Reply 16 of 22
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    It'll be great, you will only need the special Apple iGlasses to watch, $49.99, available at the Apple Store, but they will be replaced with a new one every year. They are also discussing holding the final 5 mins of every show until you pay them $5 to see the end.
    The first iPhone was released in 2007 and still works today even though there's on released yearly. Compare that to the Galaxy Note 7 that was released months ago and is being shut down. Idiot.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    calicali Posts: 3,494member
    I said it long ago on this site,
    if content providers can't come to an agreement with Apple, Apple will have to create their own content.
  • Reply 18 of 22
    cali said:
    I said it long ago on this site,
    if content providers can't come to an agreement with Apple, Apple will have to create their own content.
    How about Apple come to an agreement with them and maybe stop charging a commission for subscription services that they have nothing to do with? Why should Netflix hand over 15-30% of my monthly subscription fee to them just because I view their content via an app from the App Store. I didn't sign up for Netflix service because of Apple marketing. Also if the content I watch is on Netflix what do I care about Apple creating its own content? I think it may be a bad idea just because there's already so many places to get content. Are people really going to be interested in yet another monthly fee in addition to Neflix, Amazon, Hulu, cable/satellite etc.? Is Apple really going to lose Apple Music subscribers if they don't start offering original content TV shows? I don't think so.
  • Reply 19 of 22
    Apple branded TV content under Apple Music seems weird to me...
    Like when iTunes housed the App Store.
    edited January 2017
  • Reply 20 of 22
    Absolute waste of time, talent, top management bandwidth, and money, if true. Imho. 

    This is is far removed from Apple's core competency. 
    Then you don't understand growing importance of services to Apple.  Services is the fastest growing aspect of Apple's revenues and this year will grow to the size of a Fortune 100 company if spun off.  Indeed, it's little understood that Apple's revenue from services is growing so fast, and has grown so large, that it is now larger than all of Facebook's revenue combined.  It's clear that the cable companies and media companies have largely de facto banded together to deny Apple (as is their prerogative) access to the media streams Apple wants to package to allow customers the holy grail of single sign on, on demand viewing of a customer's choice.  They understandably fear that Apple can put this together like no one else, ala what Apple did with music.  Heck, even Netflix is resisting participating in the new TV app as they want that control and data.

     As a result, it looks like Apple needs to go big on developing its own exclusive content to attract customers and get some leverage. There is ample precedent for this as Netflix and Amazon had zero "core competency"  in this area, but they showed you can start from scratch as the formula is the same, hire good producers and directors, and the good ones will produce content for whoever is paying the bills. Apple, Amazon and Netflix all know how to distribute that content. 
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