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A major new report from the Information today offers a behind-the-scenes look at Apple TV + operations. The report says Apple is looking to increase its production of original TV shows and movies to “at least once a week” in 2022, while it also plans to spend more than $ 500 million on TV + marketing. This year.
The report also includes new details of Apple’s abandoned plans for a low-cost Apple TV hardware dongle accessory …
While Apple does not report subscriber numbers for TV +, a “person who knows the numbers” told The Information that an analyst estimate of around 40 million subscribers is “about right as of this summer.” About half of those subscribers pay for the service, while the other half get free trials.
Apple plans to spend $ 500 million on TV + marketing this year, according to the report, but one interesting piece of information is that it refuses to run paid advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. Presumably, this is an extension of the controversial relationship between the executives of Facebook and Apple. Apple plans to use part of that marketing budget to bring in a dedicated TV + button for remotes from other manufacturers, similar to its existing deal with Roku.
As for the low-cost dongle, the report explains that Tim Twerdahl was Apple’s executive in charge of such a product. Twerdahl joined Apple in 2017 after stints at Amazon, Roku, and Netflix to lead marketing for Apple’s home and audio products. Twerdahl reportedly believed that a cheap Apple TV dongle “would make it much more affordable for people to access Apple’s video streaming service.”
Twerdahl was reportedly rejected by fellow Apple executives Greg Joswiak and Phil Schiller:
But two longtime Apple marketing executives Greg Joswiak and Phil Schiller canceled Twerdahl, the person familiar with the discussions said. They didn’t want Apple to get into cheap, low-margin devices, and they worried that Apple’s branding would tarnish its reputation as a maker of premium products. In the end, Apple decided it was comfortable developing an app for Apple TV + that worked on hardware products from Samsung, Roku, Amazon, and others, even though they were relatively inexpensive.
Twerdahl gave a number of press interviews following the launch of the new Apple TV 4K earlier this year, but today’s report from Information says he has since left Apple “in recent months”.
As for Apple’s oft-rumored interest in acquiring a studio or making a deal with the NFL, today’s report says:
While Apple has considered buying studios or rights to the sport, it has never been a serious competitor, according to people familiar with the discussions. Although it has had discussions with MGM about acquiring the studio, Apple has never made a specific offer for it (Amazon has since agreed to pay $ 8.5 billion for MGM). In discussions with the NFL, Apple’s offer for rights to the league’s Sunday Ticket football package was around $ 900 million a year, less than the $ 1.5 billion deal by year that DirecTV had accepted for the package years ago (the tender for the current deal is in progress).
The full report to Information can be found here.
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