Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai signs multi-year Apple TV+ deal
Nobel Peace Prize laureate and women's rights activist Malala Yousafzai is continuing her relationship with Apple by agreeing to a multi-year programming deal for Apple TV .
The deal, announced by Apple on Monday, will have Malala and her production company Extracurricular working with Apple on new Apple TV+ programming. This is said to cover dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation, and children's series, with a view to inspiring people around the world.
"I believe in the power of stories to bring families together, forge friendships, build movements, and inspire children to dream," said Malala. "I couldn't ask for a better partner than Apple to help bring these stories to life. I'm grateful for the opportunity to support women, young people, writers, and artists in reflecting the world as they see it."
Malala joins an ever-growing roster of celebrities and other major names working with Apple to produce content for its streaming service. The list includes Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Martin Scorsese, and Idris Elba.
Apple has supported Malala repeatedly over the years, including supporting the Malala Fund in 2018 to help provide education to girls living in developing countries. Malala also visited Apple Park in August 2018 to discuss the partnership with CEO Tim Cook and VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson.
In 2019, Cook and Malala met once again to discuss teaching girls to code and the role of technology in education.
The deal, announced by Apple on Monday, will have Malala and her production company Extracurricular working with Apple on new Apple TV+ programming. This is said to cover dramas, comedies, documentaries, animation, and children's series, with a view to inspiring people around the world.
"I believe in the power of stories to bring families together, forge friendships, build movements, and inspire children to dream," said Malala. "I couldn't ask for a better partner than Apple to help bring these stories to life. I'm grateful for the opportunity to support women, young people, writers, and artists in reflecting the world as they see it."
Malala joins an ever-growing roster of celebrities and other major names working with Apple to produce content for its streaming service. The list includes Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jon Stewart, Martin Scorsese, and Idris Elba.
Apple has supported Malala repeatedly over the years, including supporting the Malala Fund in 2018 to help provide education to girls living in developing countries. Malala also visited Apple Park in August 2018 to discuss the partnership with CEO Tim Cook and VP of Environment, Policy, and Social Initiatives Lisa Jackson.
In 2019, Cook and Malala met once again to discuss teaching girls to code and the role of technology in education.
Comments
What the others have that Apple doesn't is an extensive back catalog of content. Consequently, the content they do have, is hyper-examined and judged against a mistaken narrative that their content is HR "sanitized" for correctness. There's nothing to support the narrative. It has never been that way. From day one, there has been more adult oriented content on ATV+ than any other category. Still that way now.
The kind of customer that Apple wants is the kind willing to pay for a subscription. Just like the others. Their content is varied to appeal to a wide audience. Just like the others. To ascribe a deeper meaning to Apple's content choices doesn't really make sense. They are buying from the same pool of content as all the others.
The others don't merely have "an extensive back catalog of content" but instead are still to this day actively producing the sort of broad-based content that Apple isn't. Like Apple couldn't have signed deals with the likes of Adam Sandler, Kevin James, David Ayer, Eli Roth etc. Or reboots - not subversive ones mind you - of popular 80s and 90s entertainment like Fuller House. Here is what you need to realize: at one point Netflix had BoJack Horseman - a modern deconstructive parody of 80s sitcoms - and Fuller House - a faithful reboot of the "worst" example of the sort of show that BoJack Horseman savagely skewered - on at the same time. Critics loved the former as a great example of your "adult entertainment" but audiences - almost exclusively adults who grew up watching the original show - loved the latter. They were aimed at vastly different demographics but were both hits. So you had one demographic cohort subscribing to Netflix to see BoJack Horseman but an entirely different one subscribing to see Fuller House.
The folks who run Apple TV+ on the other hand would fall over themselves for the chance to make another BoJack Horseman tomorrow but would never greenlight Fuller House, those Adam Sandler projects or the current Kevin James NASCAR show in a million years. Even Ted Lasso - the closest thing on Apple TV besides Defending Jacob that anyone can claim for a broad based mainstream show - is still about a London soccer coach who is the typical modern fails upward/succeeds in spite of himself male character. Would Apple TV+ ever produce a revival of "Coach", about an American football team set in the midwest about a guy who is actually successful in his professional and personal life because he is good at both? Despite its potential for attracting a huge audience from multiple demographics - as the original show did during its 9 year run - nope. Because the folks in Cupertino believe that a show to teach kids Taoism and Buddhism (Stillwater) is ... more socially important I guess.
Look, I know that you like the Apple TV+ programming. And that you wish that the other channels were more like Apple TV+ in their programming choices. But the reality is that you aren't the market. So if Apple keeps this up, 90% of the U.S. population will have no interest in their network. Also, the result of more outlets becoming like Apple TV+ in their programming would be even more alienation from Hollywood TV and movies in favor of foreign entertainment, YouTube and social media. This has been happening for decades already anyway: network TV ratings are a tiny fraction of what they were 20 years ago (which themselves were much reduced from what they were 20 years prior) and so are movie ticket sales. And when you put the declining TV ratings and movie ticket sales in the context of the fact that the U.S. population has actually doubled in that time you realize that things are actually worse.
Streaming is actually capitalizing on this by producing entertainment that traditional Hollywood never would. (The Mandalorian, for example, was just an 80s action/adventure show akin to MacGyver or Magnum P.I.) By simply producing the same stuff that 90% of America has no interest in watching - what really looks like failed ABC and CBS pilots a lot of the time - it really seems like the folks who are running Apple TV+ do not realize what makes streaming viable in the first place.
AppleTV+ is worth the five bucks for Ted Lasso alone. Apple One brings it down to four.
They have a few more excellent shows/films and are getting better all the time.
Nah, you're just confusing Netflix "Throw an infinite amount of licensed crap on the wall" w/ a more curated library akin to HBO's direction. Quality, not quantity.
Serious question -- are you this absolutely dense IRL? You haven't ever watched a single one of the shows yet you feel qualified to declare they're part of an HR agenda...the same stupid, debunked rumor w/ the Tim Cook "Be nicer!" notes that turned out to absolutely not be true whatsoever. There was all sorts of adult-oriented content in the shows from launch day. Try "See", where you can find masturbation, cursing, and heads being cleaved in two.
Get fucking real.
What you're seeing is two modes of operations -- the Netflix model, where you license as much crap as possible, and the HBO model, where you produce less content but it's generally pretty good/better. Now here's the crazy part....I'll let you in on a little secret...are you ready? (looks around) You don't have to pick just one. Ssshhh...keep it under your hat - we don't want everyone to know, right?