7 billion is mostly licensed content. How much are they going to spend on original? 2 billion? Think about how many shows and movies Netflix produces; if they are doing that with 1 - 3 billion, then a 1 billion outlay by Apple just to get started in the game is pretty serious.
Page 50 shows licensed vs original assets. Licensed is listed as $9.5b, produced content as $1.3b. There are some shows in different categories as House of Cards is licensed. $1b is a big investment to start out with. Netflix might scale original investment up to a few billion but the shows they have already produced were on a smaller budget.
It's easier to think about what is possible based on episode costs. An episode of a show is usually less than $10m:
A lot of the cost is in the salaries. If the actors aren't famous, they get paid less and if the show takes off, they can negotiate more in their contract:
Of the cost of House of Cards, Kevin Spacey gets $0.5-1m per episode.
If Apple had a budget of $5m per episode and a season of a show had 20 episodes, $1b is enough for a full season of 10 high budget TV shows. The following is a list of popular shows:
Detective shows are popular and are good for new episode material. Sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld are hard to make interesting and funny but can be low budget because it's just people in apartment buildings. Sci-fi shows like Star Trek and Stargate can get a loyal audience but they have to get the material right. Maybe they can adapt the Mass Effect game into a TV show:
They could have actors like Christina Hendricks or Gillian Anderson as Commander Jane Shepard, Martin Sheen already voices one of the characters, he could play that role in a cameo. There's a lot of character roles there and good scripting.
They'd be better avoiding reality shows like Kardashians and talent shows, they are disposable entertainment that people will watch once. High quality shows with good character development and scripting would be best if they want to sell a premium subscription. They'd start with good books in different genres and adapt them into screenplays:
Thankfully Apple doesn’t have the video licensing headaches Netflix has! Growing organically just might be the best way can actually learn from its own mistakes without the baggage of another company.
After painfully sitting through 10 minutes (all I could take) of Planet of the Apps, Apple should license some content. From what we've seen from Apple, they are not even in the same ballpark as Netflix. Netflix has been putting out some great stuff for years.
They already have with Carpool Karaoke. Then you have all the movies and TV shows (and music) they sell and rent, which are licensed to them by the content owners.
I mean licensed content as in what Netflix does. They have the exclusive licensing rights to stream shows like Orange is the New Black. For an example, Apple could buy the licensing rights for a nature documentary and have exclusive streaming rights. A nature documentary would be right up Apple's alley.
Unless I'm mistaken, the original content Netflix develops is theirs. They own it. Therefore, beyond whatever they paid for development they would theoretically pay nothing additional.
Some of the stuff that is labeled "Netflix Original" isn't and just exclusively licensed for that region. It's still good branding for them.
But yeah, keep thinking that Apple is going to avoid baggage, learn from mistakes and deliver a better product. But here's the best part: even if they do, only the people who own Apple hardware will know about it and benefit from it. And not ALL Apple hardware mind you. Why? Because ... folks who own iPhones, iPads and Macs will have no practical way of watching the $1 billion in content on their $3000 big screen Samsung HDTVs. So even if Apple were to come out with the next "Stranger Things" or "House of Cars" most people will have no way to watch it on a screen that is bigger than 11 inches. Are these people going to run out and buy a $150 Apple TV to watch Apple content?
Yes. Just like they buy HBO to binge watch GoT. Sometimes folks cancel, sometimes they don't.
But if not, iPhone and iPad users can spend $44 and buy this:
And as far as "only people who own Apple hardware" goes, there's quite a lot of us. And Mac users can connect to HDMI just fine...it's a little more awkward for iMac users but I connect my MBP to hotel HDTVs all the time.
7 billion is mostly licensed content. How much are they going to spend on original? 2 billion? Think about how many shows and movies Netflix produces; if they are doing that with 1 - 3 billion, then a 1 billion outlay by Apple just to get started in the game is pretty serious.
Page 50 shows licensed vs original assets. Licensed is listed as $9.5b, produced content as $1.3b. There are some shows in different categories as House of Cards is licensed. $1b is a big investment to start out with. Netflix might scale original investment up to a few billion but the shows they have already produced were on a smaller budget.
It's easier to think about what is possible based on episode costs. An episode of a show is usually less than $10m:
A lot of the cost is in the salaries. If the actors aren't famous, they get paid less and if the show takes off, they can negotiate more in their contract:
Of the cost of House of Cards, Kevin Spacey gets $0.5-1m per episode.
If Apple had a budget of $5m per episode and a season of a show had 20 episodes, $1b is enough for a full season of 10 high budget TV shows. The following is a list of popular shows:
Detective shows are popular and are good for new episode material. Sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld are hard to make interesting and funny but can be low budget because it's just people in apartment buildings. Sci-fi shows like Star Trek and Stargate can get a loyal audience but they have to get the material right. Maybe they can adapt the Mass Effect game into a TV show:
They could have actors like Christina Hendricks or Gillian Anderson as Commander Jane Shepherd, Martin Sheen already voices one of the characters, he could play that role in a cameo. There's a lot of character roles there and good scripting.
They'd be better avoiding reality shows like Kardashians and talent shows, they are disposable entertainment that people will watch once. High quality shows with good character development and scripting would be best if they want to sell a premium subscription. They'd start with good books in different genres and adapt them into screenplays:
They can give Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg a $150 million and say "make us another WWII mini-series"...just not a SF series like Terra Nova...
From the list of expensive shows it's pretty clear that spending money doesn't guarantee a hit even when well done. Deadwood and Rome didn't do very well even though I though they were done very well. There's a limited audience for some historical fiction stuff like Westerns or Romans. Marco Polo I thought was kinda meh so it losing $200M is kinda expected.
Thankfully Apple doesn’t have the video licensing headaches Netflix has! Growing organically just might be the best way can actually learn from its own mistakes without the baggage of another company.
After painfully sitting through 10 minutes (all I could take) of Planet of the Apps, Apple should license some content. From what we've seen from Apple, they are not even in the same ballpark as Netflix. Netflix has been putting out some great stuff for years.
They already have with Carpool Karaoke. Then you have all the movies and TV shows (and music) they sell and rent, which are licensed to them by the content owners.
I mean licensed content as in what Netflix does. They have the exclusive licensing rights to stream shows like Orange is the New Black. For an example, Apple could buy the licensing rights for a nature documentary and have exclusive streaming rights. A nature documentary would be right up Apple's alley.
Unless I'm mistaken, the original content Netflix develops is theirs. They own it. Therefore, beyond whatever they paid for development they would theoretically pay nothing additional.
Some of the stuff that is labeled "Netflix Original" isn't and just exclusively licensed for that region. It's still good branding for them.
I find that branding disingenuous. I'd much prefer that they had Netflix Original for stuff they've directed paid to produce and Netflix Exclusive for stuff they've licensed from other markets. Perhaps even a middle tier for items they didn't directly produce but was produced exclusive for Netflix's platform.
And as far as "only people who own Apple hardware" goes, there's quite a lot of us. And Mac users can connect to HDMI just fine...it's a little more awkward for iMac users but I connect my MBP to hotel HDTVs all the time.
Off topic: You can also connect any iDevice to an Ethernet network with adapters Apple sells and without any additional SW or jailbreaking hacks. You just need the Lightning-to-USB-A and USB-A-to-Ethernet adapters. I've never seeing work with this HDMI adapter in the link, but I see no reason it shouldn't unless the data rate is too high with HDMI being pushed out.
Comments
https://ir.netflix.com/secfiling.cfm?filingID=1628280-17-496&CIK=1065280
Page 50 shows licensed vs original assets. Licensed is listed as $9.5b, produced content as $1.3b. There are some shows in different categories as House of Cards is licensed. $1b is a big investment to start out with. Netflix might scale original investment up to a few billion but the shows they have already produced were on a smaller budget.
It's easier to think about what is possible based on episode costs. An episode of a show is usually less than $10m:
http://www.ninjajournalist.com/entertainment/expensive-tv-shows/
A lot of the cost is in the salaries. If the actors aren't famous, they get paid less and if the show takes off, they can negotiate more in their contract:
https://www.vox.com/culture/2017/6/20/15840802/gal-gadot-wonder-woman-salary-cavill-14-million
Of the cost of House of Cards, Kevin Spacey gets $0.5-1m per episode.
If Apple had a budget of $5m per episode and a season of a show had 20 episodes, $1b is enough for a full season of 10 high budget TV shows. The following is a list of popular shows:
http://www.empireonline.com/movies/features/best-tv-shows-ever/
Detective shows are popular and are good for new episode material. Sitcoms like Friends and Seinfeld are hard to make interesting and funny but can be low budget because it's just people in apartment buildings. Sci-fi shows like Star Trek and Stargate can get a loyal audience but they have to get the material right. Maybe they can adapt the Mass Effect game into a TV show:
They could have actors like Christina Hendricks or Gillian Anderson as Commander Jane Shepard, Martin Sheen already voices one of the characters, he could play that role in a cameo. There's a lot of character roles there and good scripting.
They'd be better avoiding reality shows like Kardashians and talent shows, they are disposable entertainment that people will watch once. High quality shows with good character development and scripting would be best if they want to sell a premium subscription. They'd start with good books in different genres and adapt them into screenplays:
http://www.ranker.com/list/best-tv-shows-based-on-books/ranker-tv
https://www.goodreads.com/list/tag/series
Yes. Just like they buy HBO to binge watch GoT. Sometimes folks cancel, sometimes they don't.
But if not, iPhone and iPad users can spend $44 and buy this:
https://www.amazon.com/Apple-Lightning-Digital-Adapter-MD826AM/dp/B009WHV3BM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1502980788&sr=8-5&keywords=apple+tv
And as far as "only people who own Apple hardware" goes, there's quite a lot of us. And Mac users can connect to HDMI just fine...it's a little more awkward for iMac users but I connect my MBP to hotel HDTVs all the time.
From the list of expensive shows it's pretty clear that spending money doesn't guarantee a hit even when well done. Deadwood and Rome didn't do very well even though I though they were done very well. There's a limited audience for some historical fiction stuff like Westerns or Romans. Marco Polo I thought was kinda meh so it losing $200M is kinda expected.