YouTube is reportedly canceling its original series just as Apple prepares to unveil a video streaming service of its own.
At least two of YouTube’s biggest shows have been axed, according to a new report. The service has also stopped accepting pitches for new originals as it drops plans to compete with the likes of Amazon and Netflix.
Apple has spent upwards of $1 billion creating original TV shows, but as of yet it hasn’t revealed exactly how it plans to get these in front of users. One idea? That it could release a streaming dongle, similar to Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Fire TV Stick.
This could be a lower cost entry point into the streaming TV market — since both Amazon and Google’s offerings cost under $50, compared to $180 for the Apple TV.
Apple is spending upward of $1 billion on its original TV shows, and it’s not skimping when it comes to star salaries. According to a recent report, Apple is paying out some of the highest salaries to any actors in television shows. It’s even exceeding the amount paid to the stars of shows like The Walking Dead.
It’s another example of how, when you’re a company the size of Apple, you can afford to throw around some serious cash to bring in top talent.
After spending upward of $1 billion creating original TV shows, Apple apparently plans to give them away for free. That would certainly be a bold move as Apple muscles into original video production, but it might be the craziest idea ever.
Here are three reasons why it’s a smart strategy — and three more why it could backfire.
Apple’s not the only tech company hopping on the original content bandwagon in 2018. Snapchat company Snap is launching new shows in partnership with Hollywood production companies. And they’re coming as soon as today.
Called “Snap Originals,” they won’t be full-length shows like Apple is busy commissioning, though. In keeping with the short-term hook that made Snapchat popular, the company is cranking out five-minute episodes shot vertically for viewing on mobile devices.
Apple is spending upwards of $1 billion making original TV shows, but little has been publicly said about the initiative just yet. According to Netflix’s chief content officer, not only are customers in the dark about how Apple will make its shows available — even the folks making the shows for Apple don’t know.
Speaking at the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in Los Angeles, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos said that, “I don’t have any idea what that Apple product is going to be. I don’t think anybody does. I don’t think people making shows for them have any idea.”
What’s more, Netflix isn’t worried!
Actress Katherine LaNasa from the TV series Imposters and Satisfaction has joined the cast of Apple thriller series Are You Sleeping?, about a Serial-style crime podcast which reopens a murder case.
Interestingly, she will play a new character to replace the one originally played by actress Moon Bloodgood, who left the show after filming four out of the eight season one episodes. According to trade publication Deadline, the character’s role in the show is being completely rewritten.
Apple may have upward of 20 original TV shows in production, but don’t expect to find them filled with adult themes or material.
According to a new report, Apple is aiming for shows with broad appeal, which translates as no “gratuitous sex, profanity or violence.” While this rule won’t be an absolute, it does mean that only a small number of Apple TV shows will receive a TV-MA rating.
Apple has acquired the rights to two feature-length films as part of its original content efforts. The first is a feature documentary, titled The Elephant Queen of Athena, while the second is an animated film called Wolfwakers.
The Elephant Queen of Athena was opened up to buyers earlier this year at the European Film Market in Berlin, Germany. Following the story of an elephant matriarch who leads her family on journey across Africa in search of food and water, it’s been likened to 2005’s highly successful March of the Penguins.
As Apple makes moves to become a provider of streaming video content, it will be among the companies bound by new EU laws, stating that companies dedicate at least 30 percent of their on-demand catalogs to local content.
Roberto Viola, head of the European Commission department which regulates this area, says that the laws are on track to be enshrined in December. “We just need the final vote, but it’s a mere formality,” he recently told trade publication Variety.
Former Game of Thrones and current Aquaman actor Jason Momoa is set to star in another new Apple original series.
Called See, the show is an epic, world-building drama that’s set in the future. Momoa will play the lead role of Baba Voss, described by trade magazine Variety as, “a fearless warrior, leader and guardian.” So a totally different type of role for Momoa, then!
The biggest question mark currently hanging over Apple’s original TV plans is how exactly Apple plans to distribute it. With the likes of Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg in tow, there’s no doubt that Apple has managed to rope in some impressive names for its video content. But how will users be able to watch it?
Here are a few theories.
After beating out every other photo-sharing platform and stealing Snapchat’s lunch money, Instagram is jumping into video.
A new report claims the service is adding support for uploading videos up to an hour in length. It is also in talks with content creators and publishers about the possibility of delivering original long-form videos that could compete with shows from the likes of Apple and Netflix.
Apple is “dabbling” in TV, according to 21st Century Fox CEO James Murdoch. In an on-stage interview at Recode‘s Code Conference, Murdoch touched on the subject of tech companies moving into original content creation and distribution.
His message? That Apple will need to be patient and willing to fail if it’s going to have a hope of succeeding.
Apple is adding a new crime-based original drama series to its collection of original shows.
Are You Sleeping stars Oscar-winning Octavia Spencer from The Help, and is being adapted from a novel by Kathleen Barber about a Serial-style crime podcast which reopens a murder case.
Apple wants to create a hit TV show that’s as popular as Game of Thrones only without all the nudity and violence.
According to a new report, Hollywood talent pitching Apple’s TV team has been informed that the company wants to make original shows that are suitable for all audiences so they can be played at Apple stores.
Apple is set to make its biggest push into original content yet by inking a deal with one of the biggest directors in Hollywood history.
Steven Spielberg and Apple reportedly will create new episodes of Amazing Stories. The science fiction anthology series originally ran in the 1980s on NBC, but will be relaunched with all-new episodes.
Following the continuing allegations about sexual harassment by Weinstein Company movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, Apple has reportedly scrapped plans for an Elvis Presley biopic original series, which would have been produced by the Weinstein Company.
Jimmy Iovine is hinting that Apple may indeed be looking to follow Amazon and Netflix down the original TV programming route, telling The Hollywood Reporter that the company is “going to do whatever hits popular culture smack on the nose.”
“At Apple Music, what we’re trying to create is an entire cultural, pop cultural experience, and that happens to include audio and video,” Iovine said.
It’s looking increasingly likely that when Tim Cook takes the stage at the annual WWDC keynote on June 11th, Apple will announce new MacBook Pros and possibly iMacs, and if the rumor mill is to be believed, these new machines won’t just be slimmer and ditch their optical drives… they’ll be the first Macs with Retina displays.
What everyone widely expects from Retina display Macs is an iPhone or iPad-style resolution doubling. So if the current 15-inch MacBook Pro has a 1,440 x 900 display, the Retina 15-inch MBP would have a 2,880 x 1800 display.
What the rumor mill is missing is that there’s no benefit to Apple handling a jump to Retina display Macs this way. The reason the iPad and iPhone going Retina was such a big deal was because they had really pixellated displays. Before the iPhone 4, the iPhone had a display that was only 53% close to being Retina. The iPad was slightly better, at 61%. Roughly, both the iPad and iPhone were only about halfway there, which made the easiest fix to just double the amount of pixels per inch.
But Apple doesn’t need to do this with its line of Macs. In fact, it’s likely that most “Retina Quality” Macs will have fewer pixels than your new iPad. Here’s why.
The official Apple Store app is already a useful tool if you have to sally forth into meat space, allowing you to schedule appointment times at your local Genius Bar, reserve items for pickup at your local Apple Store and the like.
Come November 3rd, though, the Apple Store iOS app is set to gain some cool new functionality: the ability to check your own purchases out at Apple’s physical retail locations.
