Apple unveiled its first look at the tech company’s upcoming streaming services during a glitzy, star-studded press conference at the Steve Jobs theater in Cupertino, California on Monday. The service will consist of two components: Apple TV Channels, which will bundle content from popular services such as HBO and Showtime; and Apple TV+, which will feature original content.
The Apple TV services will be completely ad-free, with content available to be streamed on any device or downloaded, putting it in direct competition with Netflix.
A-list actors and directors such as Steve Carell, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, and Kumail Nanjiani, and even Big Bird were all on hand to dish on their respective projects in development with Apple TV+. The event culminated with Tim Cook bringing out queen Oprah herself to give a pep rally while teasing her own project, as attendees and those watching from around the world braced themselves for Apple to finally reveal the price point for this most ambitious endeavor.
Were they trying to really sell the service before dropping a hefty monthly fee, or planning to surprise everyone by coming in below Netflix? Everyone waited to find out the answer.
And then, Oprah left the stage … and the event ended. Without naming a price. So essentially, Apple revealed just about everything there is to know about Apple TV except for how much and when — other than an ambiguous “fall” timeline. People were understandably frustrated with this one, huge detail being omitted, and many took to Twitter to express their bewilderment.
https://twitter.com/jamestitcomb/status/1110252947965763589
Ok we did actually get a trailer. That 30-second montage was designed to sell us on AppleTV+ and that’s it!
No price announced (bold). Coming this fall.
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) March 25, 2019
As expected, Apple TV+ has a ton of big names attached (Oprah, Spielberg, Steve Carell, Jennifer Aniston, Jason Momoa) yet no word on how much this service will actually cost… #AppleEvent
— Karissa Bell (@karissabe) March 25, 2019
They are using Oprah to obscure the fact that they didn’t tell you how much AppleTV+ will cost…
— Tim Goodman (@BastardMachine) March 25, 2019
Very underwhelmed by that Apple TV+ presentation. Barely any footage, no firm release date or price point and LOTS of famous people standing there acting very stiff while saying platitudes about innovation and connectivity
— Captain Midnight (@midnightcap) March 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/McTelevision/status/1110250147227688960
Apple didn't answer the biggest question everyone wanted to know: How much Apple TV+ will cost#appleevent
— Ray Wong (@raywongy) March 25, 2019
AND NO PRICING!! After near 2 hours of watching talking heads and no real trailers and more buzzwords then anyone one human should hear in one sitting WE DON"T EVEN GET A PRICE! on how much this going to cost. #appleevent #appletv
— BWOne (@BWOneDotCom) March 25, 2019
https://twitter.com/geoffreyfowler/status/1110251853256613891
https://twitter.com/KevinDuffey/status/1110252270850138115
A popular theory is that Apple is holding off to see how much Disney plans to charge for its own streaming service, but that’s not exactly helpful in the meantime.
