If you’re one of those poor, unfortunate souls who loves the current boom in quality television, but is tortured by your inability to consume all of it, things might be about to get better and worse. Variety is reporting that Apple, the billionaire gorilla in the room, has started kicking the tires on original content production, too, possibly in an attempt to compete with your Netflixs and Amazons and Hulus.
The scale of Apple’s ambitions vary depending on whom is asked, but one high-level executive who talked with the company said the goal is to create development and production divisions that would churn out long-form content to stream in a bid to compete with Netflix. Apple is hoping to put a headhunting firm on those hires in the coming months, according to source, with the goal of being in operation next year. Unknown is whether the focus is on TV series, movies — or both.
Also unknown is whether these TV series and/or movies will be sold individually through iTunes, the way third-party content currently is, or if this signals a move toward a monthly subscription service, a la Apple Music. What we DO know for certain is the following things: One, with $200 billion in cash on hand, Apple has the resources to basically do whatever it wants, and competitors could understandably be very nervous today. Two, if Apple is taking pitches for these new projects, I mean, I did just type “Billionaire Gorilla” in that first paragraph…
(Via Variety)