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Apple Creating Content with Sesame Workshop

Posted on June 20, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple signed an agreement to create kids programs with Sesame Workshop.

Apple needs original content or else Apple TV will just be another commodity TV device. Original content means creating shows that can only be seen by subscribing to a particular service such as Netflix, Hulu, or now Apple. While Apple is unlikely to pursue any R-rated shows, they do seem interested in family entertainment. That’s why Apple has partnered with Sesame Workshop to create children’s programs.

Sesame Workshop is best known for creating “Sesame Street.” While Sesame Street won’t be exclusive to Apple, Sesame Workshop will create exclusive content separately for Apple. that includes live-action and animated shows. Most likely these shows will focus on educational content but this is just one more effort by Apple to create family-friendly content exclusively for Apple TV and other Apple products. If you want to see these new shows, you’ll have to subscribe to Apple’s new TV services.

Apple is likely focusing on the G and PG-rated market so families will trust Apple content in much the same way that families trust Disney’s content to be suitable for children. Of course, it doesn’t mater who Apple partners with if the content they create isn’t appealing to others, but that’s the chance Apple (and every other content provider like Netflix) must take. For every show that succeeds, a larger number will fail. That’s just the nature of original TV programming.

So look for original content coming from Apple and Sesame Workshop soon. Then hope that Apple’s original content actually proves compelling enough to convince people to sign up and pay a monthly fee. Apple will likely field a lot of misses and near disasters before finally discovering a blockbuster hit.

Apple Inks Deal with Oprah Winfrey

Posted on June 15, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Marketing Leave a comment

What it is: Apple signed a deal with Oprah Winfrey to bring her content to Apple products.

Oprah Winfrey is a powerful woman who can create content in video and books. That’s why Apple recently signed a deal to access any future content Oprah creates or acquires the right to. That could mean future Oprah TV shows or movies could appear on Apple TV and future Oprah books could appear on Apple’s bookstore.

Apple has been aggressively pursuing original content for Apple TV because without it, Apple TV is just a commodity, offering the same thing that everyone else offers. Commodity markets are the least profitable markets. Just witness the android smartphone market where Samsung makes most of the money and all other Android device makers lose money. Making products that lose money is simply not sustainable in the long run.

Without original content, Apple TV offered little to attract customers. Now with more Hollywood deals including the latest with Oprah Winfrey, Apple can differentiate themselves from their rivals. Just as Netflix and Hulu have created original TV shows, so does Apple TV need original content that Oprah can provide. Any content created or endorsed by Oprah will immediately attract a huge following simply based on her name alone. Most likely any content endorsed by Oprah will be decent but the quality is far less important than Oprah’s name attached to it because Oprah’s name and following will insure that her content will be widely publicized and viewed.

Apple may be late to the original content market that Netflix and Amazon helped pioneer, but it has the money to stay in the market and outbid rivals for original content. This latest deal with Oprah will simply help Apple TV get started and compete against rivals. Now we just have to wait and see how good Oprah’s content really might be.

Apple Lands Isaac Asimov “Foundation” TV Series

Posted on April 10, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: Apple won the bidding war for the rights to Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” novels for a TV series.

Apple needs exclusive content for Apple TV to make it worth people buying. Apple’s first attempts at exclusive content revolved around lame shows like “Planet of the Apps” that nobody cared about. That’s why Apple has been busy bidding for new shows. One of their earliest bids include a reboot of the “Amazing Stories” anthology series that originally aired in the 80’s, along with an unnamed morning news drama show starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.

However, Apple needs must-see shows like “Game of Thrones,” but that means supporting several shows, knowing that only a few will actually succeed. That’s why Apple has spent money to bid on proven show concepts like Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” trilogy that will be turned into a TV series.

Science fiction fans know and love this “Foundation” trilogy that defined an early era of science fiction, which influenced future stories like “Star Wars.” By owning the rights to Isaac Asimov’s “Foundation” novels for airing as a TV series, Apple has gained their first original show that has a built-in audience that will want to watch it. Whether the TV series is any good is irrelevant at this point. Just the name of Isaac Asimov and the “Foundation” trilogy will be enough to attract an audience. Then the show’s quality will have to keep people watching.

Apple needs to take a two-pronged approach to exclusive content. First, they need to keep gambling on unknown shows that have the potential of becoming hits like “Orange is the New Black”. Second, they need to keep pursuing stories based on proven content like “Game of Thrones” or “The Walking Dead,” which was based on a graphic novel. Constantly pursuing original content and hoping it will turn into a hit show is risky, so the safest bet is to keep paying for TV shows based on proven content. That means creating TV shows based on novels, movies (like “Westworld”), comic books, or old TV shows. That also means paying for those rights.

Apple can’t afford to offer lame content like “Planet of the Apps” so they have no choice but to start spending billions gambling on new TV shows every year. Some will succeed but most will fail, and that’s the way original TV programming works. Apple can’t predict what will work so they can only gamble like everyone else trying to find the magic show that will skyrocket to popularity overnight. Nobody knows this formula other than to keep creating new content and hoping for the best.

Jumping into original content is the only way Apple can make Apple TV unique. The only question is how long will it take until Apple finally has a “Game of Thrones”-like hit on their hands?

The Future is Streaming

Posted on March 20, 2018 by admin Posted in Business Leave a comment

What it is: The 12th edition of Deloitte’s Digital Media Trends Survey found that 55 percent of U.S. households now subscribe to at least one streaming service, and the average streaming video subscriber is paying for three services.

At one time, Apple owned the music industry through audio downloads on iTunes. Then streaming music appeared and killed the audio download business. Streaming is the future because it’s faster and more convenient than buying and handling physical media like CDs or DVDs. That’s why video rental stores are mostly gone.

Apple largely missed the boat on streaming audio and had to acquire Beats for $3 billion dollars to get back into the streaming music industry. Now with Netflix leading the way for streaming video, Apple is late once again to jumping into the streaming video business.

Fortunately for Apple, the streaming video industry is still fairly new and with people subscribing to multiple services, they’ll likely include any Apple streaming service in with Hulu or Netflix subscriptions as well. With Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Apple producing original content along with HBO, the future points to multiple streaming video subscriptions to access original content on all of them. In comparison, streaming audio essentially offers the same music everywhere so once you find one streaming audio service you like, there’s no point in subscribing to another one.

That means streaming video is the future and all those DVDs collecting dust and taking up space will simply fade away over time. Remember Blu-ray? Apple refused to offer Blu-ray drives in their computers and initially this seemed like a mistake. Now it makes perfect sense because physical media is going away.

So expect a future of paying for video streaming services where each service offering unique content of its own to attract subscribers. Just as nobody only watched CBS or NBC shows at the exclusion of the other networks, few people are going to subscribe to a single video streaming service. That’s good news for all video streaming services because that means they can attract the same customers. Video streaming to smartphones and tablets will be the crucial link to let you watch shows anywhere you want. That’s already happening but with faster Internet access on WiFi, this can be more common with less gnashing of teeth with slow Internet connections and lagging video.

How many streaming video services can survive? Most likely just a handful of the larger companies like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Apple. Anyone else will likely get steamrolled into oblivion or acquired so it’s a good time to be working for large video streaming companies and not a good time to be working for smaller ones unless they can offer something unique that will make them an attractive acquisition target.

The future is streaming whether it’s music or video. That much is clear. What that means for the traditional networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) and the traditional Hollywood studios remains to be seen.

Apple vs. Netflix

Posted on March 5, 2018 by admin Posted in Business, Hardware Leave a comment

What it is: Apple has made more deals with top Hollywood talent to create original content for Apple TV.

Apple TV is a decent product, but lacks a must-have reason to buy it. That’s about to change as Apple has been spending millions to create original content. The more original, compelling content Apple can crate, the more appealing Apple TV will be. Apple is aiming for the same streaming video service that Netflix helped pioneer.

That eventually means that Apple is competing directly against Netflix. While Netflix has the advantage of a loyal user base and many successes in original content, Netflix is essentially another TV network like ABC or CBS. That means there’s room for rivals like Apple TV.

Most likely, Apple TV’s original content won’t kill Netflix, but it will simply rival Netflix’s features. Where Apple has an advantage is their multiple devices that they could easily stream content effortlessly. This would make watching shows effortless whether you watch it on an iPad, an iPhone or Apple TV. Watching Netflix shows on multiple devices is just as easy, but Apple could integrate their shows with their hardware to provide optimal performance and convenience.

Still, Apple is playing catch up to Netflix and Amazon in the streaming video business. Pouring money into original content is fine, but finding hits is another thing altogether. Apple will likely continue pouring money into original content and just like everyone else, wind up wasting lots of money in return for a handful of hits. Unlike software development, Apple has no guaranteed formula for success in the original TV content market. Expect Apple to do well, but no better or worse than everyone else. About the only certainty is that ABC, CBS, and NBC have lost their dominance for good to upstarts like Amazon, Netflix, and now Apple.

Apple Acquires “Little America” TV Show

Posted on February 9, 2018 by admin Posted in User Interface Leave a comment

What it is: Apple acquired “Little America,” a TV series created by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, stars of the movie “The Big Sick.”

Why should people buy an Apple TV? No reason, which is why Apple TV isn’t as wildly popular as the iPhone, iPad, Macintosh, or Apple Watch. The Apple TV is nice, but doesn’t do anything better or worse than any rival product. That’s why Apple is pursuing exclusive content to make Apple TV more appealing. The theory is that if you want to watch specific shows, you have to buy an Apple TV.

Whether that works or not remains to be seen, but people will subscribe to Netflix to watch Netflix shows and subscribe to Hulu to watch Hulu shows. If a show is popular enough, people will buy an Apple TV if they want to watch an Apple TV show. Apple has spent millions buying exclusive content and their latest acquisition is “Little America,” an anthology TV series created by Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, stars of the movie “The Big Sick.”

The goal of “Little America” is to highlight the inspiring stories of immigrants coming to America and succeeding. This fits in with Apple’s goal of focusing on content that avoids profanity, violence, and sex. Essentially, Apple wants their exclusive content to be family-oriented programs since it will sport the Apple brand name behind it.

That means Apple TV will be family-oriented, much like Disney, which makes it easy to see how Apple and Disney could and should work together. By offering family-oriented exclusive content, Apple TV can target a niche. If you want to see shows involving violence, serial killers, or sex, you will still be able to find it on Apple TV but it won’t be under the Apple brand name.

Now that Apple has a clear goal to focus on family-oriented, exclusive content, they should also focus on expanding that niche to inspirational and educational content as well. “Little America” can help people learn more about immigrants and their struggles, but more inspirational content could be Apple TV’s niche. Right now if you watch Netflix or Hulu, you’re likely to see plenty of shows involving crime, sex, drugs, violence, and dishonesty. Imagine an Apple TV network that provides positive, uplifting, inspirational, and family-friendly content instead. That’s the true market for Apple TV, especially because no other networks are pursuing this.

Let Amazon, Netflix, and Hulu battle it out for random shows, hoping to find a hit. Apple should corner the positive programming niche because that fits their brand image and because no one else is doing that. If Apple TV offered such exclusive content, it would create a strong reasons for others to buy an Apple TV, unlike the current situation today.