Three Amazon video content development executives jump ship for fledgling Apple production...

Posted:
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV edited December 2017
Apple is further growing its stable of video streaming executives, poaching three high-level staffers from Amazon with one who will retain focused on children's programming development.




Confirmed by Variety on Thursday afternoon, Amazon Video Business Affairs executive Tara Pietri will head up legal affairs for Apple. The lead of Amazon's child-centric video program, Tara Sorensen, is moving laterally at Apple and will have substantively the same role.

International development executive Carina Walker will also hold a similar position at Apple.

Sorensen will report to Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, formerly of Sony Television. Walker will report to Morgan Wandell -- also once from Amazon, and brought on-board in October.

Erlicht and Van Amburg are said to be tasked with securing "around a dozen" original TV shows, with four of them known. Sorensen's hire is the first indication that Apple is looking at developing children's programming.

A recent move by Apple in sourcing unique content is a new morning show-related drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. Also, Apple has reportedly given a blank check to Drake to produce whatever shows or movies he wants.

In October, Apple signed a deal with Amblin Television and NBCUniversal to revive "Amazing Stories," an anthology science fiction series created by Steven Spielberg that ran for two seasons in the 1980s. Apple is expected to air 10 episodes, spending over $5 million on each show.

More recently, Apple signed a deal with "Star Trek" and "Battlestar Galactica" reboot alum Ronald D. Moore to pen a new space drama.

All four ventures are believed to be part of a broader $1 billion investment in original video programming, concentrating on big-budget dramas similar to "Breaking Bad" or "Game of Thrones." Those efforts are reportedly being led by the June hiring of former Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, as well as development head Matt Cherniss.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 16
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    [Deleted User]SpamSandwich
  • Reply 2 of 16
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    I think Apple needs to grow its services revenue and loads of content seems to be a good way do it if Apple intends to get into the video streaming business. You believe Apple is pissing away its money despite the fact that Netflix carries a P/E of 190 and Apple carries a P/E of 19. I might be missing something but Netflix is valued 10X higher than Apple. Wall Street certainly doesn't think Netflix is pissing away its money on content as long as it can keep growing its subscriber base. Amazon is doing the same thing as Netflix and is constantly being praised to high heaven over Prime Video. Apple needs something to boost its value and programming seems to be working quite well for those other companies I mentioned.
    applesnorangesSoli
  • Reply 3 of 16
    This is starting to get interesting... ❄️☃️❄️
  • Reply 4 of 16
    What an odd headline! People don't "jump ship" to join a "fledgling" effort. They leave to work on exciting projects that they believe can or will be successful and they leave for money. People in movie/TV production more often leave to work on exciting projects that could possible win them accolades. Since none of us really know what Apple is up to, we can only speculate, but why be so negative? 
  • Reply 5 of 16
    Mike WuertheleMike Wuerthele Posts: 6,858administrator
    What an odd headline! People don't "jump ship" to join a "fledgling" effort. They leave to work on exciting projects that they believe can or will be successful and they leave for money. People in movie/TV production more often leave to work on exciting projects that could possible win them accolades. Since none of us really know what Apple is up to, we can only speculate, but why be so negative? 
    No negativity present.
  • Reply 6 of 16
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    What an odd headline! People don't "jump ship" to join a "fledgling" effort. They leave to work on exciting projects that they believe can or will be successful and they leave for money. People in movie/TV production more often leave to work on exciting projects that could possible win them accolades. Since none of us really know what Apple is up to, we can only speculate, but why be so negative? 
    What’s bad about being a “fledgling”?

    edited December 2017
  • Reply 7 of 16
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    I think Apple needs to grow its services revenue and loads of content seems to be a good way do it if Apple intends to get into the video streaming business. You believe Apple is pissing away its money despite the fact that Netflix carries a P/E of 190 and Apple carries a P/E of 19. I might be missing something but Netflix is valued 10X higher than Apple. Wall Street certainly doesn't think Netflix is pissing away its money on content as long as it can keep growing its subscriber base. Amazon is doing the same thing as Netflix and is constantly being praised to high heaven over Prime Video. Apple needs something to boost its value and programming seems to be working quite well for those other companies I mentioned.
    major difference being that netflix and amazon didn't start off all-in on original programming - this came years later once the subscriber base was established.
  • Reply 8 of 16
    Don't think Apple like to be in content creating business but they're forced. There are no major music distributors holding back their music from iTunes or Music but there are hollywood studio that don't want to participate in Apple streaming project. The most obvious is Disney who's about to build their own service. Disney already withhold their contents on 4K streaming on iTunes, and will likely do so for 20th Century Fox's as well once the merging complete. If Apple sit still studios will destroy iTunes. They need to have contents of their own whether they like it or not. C'est la vie.
    edited December 2017
  • Reply 9 of 16
    as a huge fan of original content i'm looking forward to seeing what Apple can come up with, just hope it's better than Planet of the Apps!!
  • Reply 10 of 16
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,035member
    What an odd headline! People don't "jump ship" to join a "fledgling" effort. They leave to work on exciting projects that they believe can or will be successful and they leave for money. People in movie/TV production more often leave to work on exciting projects that could possible win them accolades. Since none of us really know what Apple is up to, we can only speculate, but why be so negative? 
    They do it all the time and AI has posted countless stories about Apple getting people from other companies for their newer projects and Apple losing people from popular projects to other companies joining the race, or even so they can start a brand new company on their own. Financial incentives from large companies looking for talent, some people love the excitement of working on something from the ground up.
  • Reply 11 of 16
    FolioFolio Posts: 698member
    My hope is Apple's fledgling effort here allows it to leap beyond "me too" content and its rather expensive and risky processes.  Eg very intense digital mapping of international cities not only good for Apple map features, but for future movie location renderings. Cheaper than location shooting with stars and crew. Also complements any AR and future gaming efforts. Still, I instinctively cringe at "feature film from Apple Motion Pictures." Hope they choose a different brand, or brands. Maybe one for kids or G fare. Choosing different branding strategy might allow them to loosen up to consider some R rated productions.

    [BTW Soli, thx, that was Vermeer the artist, actual title was "vermeer and the masters of genre painting" based on current show at DC's Ntnl Gallery of Art, previously at Louvre and Dublin Museum.]
    Soli
  • Reply 12 of 16
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    Based on what?
  • Reply 13 of 16
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    Based on what?
    It's not like they don't have the money anyway, Original programming is a huge part of TV now, and it won't be going anywhere anytime soon either, I'm glad they're finally taking it seriously.
  • Reply 14 of 16
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    Would definitely be to their benefit to buy up any number of companies with large libraries of in-demand content instead of going the startup route with what amounts to a new studio. They could buy or acquire controlling interests in established studios.
  • Reply 15 of 16
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    Would definitely be to their benefit to buy up any number of companies with large libraries of in-demand content instead of going the startup route with what amounts to a new studio. They could buy or acquire controlling interests in established studios.
    They should just buy Netflix tbh. 
  • Reply 16 of 16
    mavemufc said:
    I think Apple is pissing money away on programming...
    Would definitely be to their benefit to buy up any number of companies with large libraries of in-demand content instead of going the startup route with what amounts to a new studio. They could buy or acquire controlling interests in established studios.
    They should just buy Netflix tbh. 
    Netflix does own more of their own original programming now, but all of the existing movie deals that they have with studios would not survive a transfer of ownership. That's why Netflix is in such a poor bargaining position.
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