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It’s been a week-long roller coaster for Apple TV +. We’ll start with the good: On Monday, the streaming service won its first-ever Oscar nominations, one for Irish animated film Wolf walkers, and one in the newly merged category of Best Sound for Tom Hanks’ War Epic Doggy style. Two is not a ton; Netflix, for example, led the pack with 35 and Amazon Studios got 12. But it’s a foothold, one that Apple can build on in the less chaotic awards seasons to come.
On the other hand, there is cherry. An adaptation of Nico Walker’s semi-autobiographical novel and directors Joe and Anthony Russo’s first post-Marvel project, the film is a statement from the Russos and Apple. Spider-Man himself, known in civilian clothes as Tom Holland, plays the role of a veteran struggling with PTSD and an opioid addiction who turns to bank robbery, which cherry a handbag of i-capital issues. It’s meant to mark the Russos as serious filmmakers and Apple as a place to find serious films. Unfortunately, cherry maybe a little bit too much ambitious, with harsh reviews striking its erratic pastiche of homage to the genre as too hazy to do the story justice.
This mix of highs and lows feels on the mark for Apple TV +. Almost a year and a half after its launch, the service feels like an outlier in an area that has grown rapidly, even in its short lifespan. Owned by a tech company rather than an entertainment giant, Apple TV + doesn’t have the massive IP vault driving Disney +, HBO Max, Peacock, or Paramount +. It also doesn’t take advantage of the lead that allowed Netflix to build a subscriber base with rented catalogs before launching into the originals, or that allowed Amazon to experiment with gadgets like a virtual pilot season. until he finds a balance. And at just $ 5 a month – not counting free trials, many of which are still ongoing – Apple TV + comes at the price of an add-on rather than a full-fledged cable alternative. (For context, that’s on par with the ad-subsidized levels of Peacock or Paramount +, but much less than comparable ad-free services like Netflix or HBO Max.)
As a result, Apple has largely avoided the headlines that accompany seismic movements like WarnerMedia ditching movie theaters in favor of HBO Max. But that doesn’t mean it’s been completely silent on this particular Streaming Wars front. Let’s check out some recent developments for Apple TV + and how they affect the whole playing field.
Oprah and Meghan and Harry … and CBS
Of the many pre-launch deals Apple made to show it meant business, one of the most significant was with Oprah. The broadcaster has since launched an independent TV version of its famous book club as well as Oprah’s conversation, an interview show whose guests included Mariah Carey and Barack Obama. Oprah is also producing a mental health documentary series for Apple TV + with Prince Harry, a project delayed by the pandemic but prominently featured in her landmark interview with Harry and his wife Meghan Markle.
This interview, Oprah’s most important in years, was not shown on Apple TV +. Instead, the award went to CBS, which paid Oprah Harpo’s production company $ 7 million for the two-hour shoot – and won over 17 million viewers and ad rates. exorbitantly paid for by legions of drug companies. There are understandable reasons the exchange didn’t air on Apple TV +; Meghan and Harry themselves have a deal with rival Netflix, and Harpo undoubtedly wanted to maximize exposure, which would make a pay-wallless broadcast network the obvious choice. It’s an awkward look for Apple, however. What’s the point in signing someone like Oprah if he just wants to take his bigger job somewhere else?
One year free, then some
When Apple TV + first launched, Apple demonstrated its advantage as a multi-billion dollar company with money to burn and merchandise on the go, offering free subscriptions as well as sales. hardware peripherals. (Think of it as a better-crafted version of the infamous U2 debacle of yesteryear.) The idea was to value audiences over income so that the original series and movies had a chance to prove their worth. The company bet that after a year, subscribers would like the service enough to pay for continued access.
But Apple has now extended that “one-year” free trial twice: once last October and once again in January. The trial is now slated to expire in July this year, which means Apple will have distributed over 20 months of free content on behalf of the show. This figure may seem dire, but Apple is Apple and the effects of the pandemic on production are about as mitigating as there is. Social distancing has significantly slowed production of the product that is supposed to be the selling point of the service, and if you are able to afford the cost of extending a free trial until the pipeline has a chance to emerge, why not you?
Reward bait, caught
Incredibly, the Oscars are just the icing on the cake of what has proven to be a successful rewards strategy. Wellness football sitcom Ted lasso won big at the Golden Globes, with Jason Sudeikis earning the show an extra publicity boost with a widely memorized and potentially smashed performance on Zoom; last year, flagship title The morning show broke through at the Emmys, winning a supporting actor statue for Billy Crudup – best performance in a very uneven show. Rewards aren’t the same as eyeballs, but they’re an important way to generate buzz and flex the muscles of Apple’s talent pool. With no strict ratings, they’re tangible proof that Apple is doing something right.
The advantage of a relatively small originals list, coupled with Apple’s bottomless pockets, is that Apple can put all its firepower behind a few select titles, which then have a decent chance of breaking the noise. (Netflix, on the other hand, has to pick its favorites.) Either of the Oscars is unlikely to translate into an actual prize, but this year’s group gives Apple a foundation to build on in coming years. Rewards are, frankly, an easier and smaller target than a business as massive as building a streaming service from scratch. They’re a remarkable achievement nonetheless, and something to watch out for as Apple gathers momentum.
An uneven archive
When it first started, Apple TV + was a confusing proposition: just a handful of original series that didn’t fit into a consistent brand. Almost a year and a half later, that is starting to change. The second seasons of both Dickinson and For all mankind received a heroic welcome from fans drawn to their provocative eccentricity (spider dances! guns on the moon!). Ted lasso is already renewed for not one, but of them more seasons; Same Central park, the musical Loren Bouchard which has already withstood a voice casting controversy.
But the Apple TV + release still seems all over the place, a natural pitfall of populating your archives one show at a time instead of coming with a rented catalog or a trunk crammed with studio releases from decades past. (More on this strategy in a moment.) It’s especially pronounced when it comes to his films, which range from niche productions like the documentary Boys state or Sofia Coppola On the rocks, to concert films like Billie Eilish: The world is a bit hazy and intermediate dramas like Palmer, Justin Timberlake’s vehicle that was Apple’s first iteration to receive the now-usual treatment of “ambiguous bragging without real numbers” from its platform. It’s kind of a milestone, but it’s still remarkable that one of Apple’s two Oscar-nominated films wasn’t ripped off until after the pandemic wiped out theaters.
A change of course (provisional)
To fill in the gaps in its still sparse original lineup, Apple announced a major pivot last spring: it acquired all 96 episodes of the original 1980s series. Fraggle Rock. Certainly, the acquisition directly feeds a planned reboot of the series, which will be a full-fledged original. But at the time, the move looked like an unspoken admission that Apple might need more than its own productions to attract subscribers, especially with the pandemic slowing production in what was the foreseeable future at the time.
Since then, Apple has announced a similar deal with the Peanuts franchise. Just as the partnership with The Jim Henson Company includes both new series and licensed material, its arrangement with Canadian studio WildBrain encompasses the two classic holiday promotions. and new projects like The Snoopy Show. So what initially looked like a major reversal is more of a half step. Apple hasn’t purchased any major outdoor shows that aren’t associated with original productions, meaning vertical integration remains a cornerstone of its overall goals. To get there, however, it fills its shelves with some pretty sizable placeholders.
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