Apple reportedly reducing TV+ spend after $20 billion content investment
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Apple is reining in spending on TV+ content, according to a new report from Bloomberg.
Per the publication, the iPhone maker has spent “more than $20 billion [USD/about $27.5 billion CAD] to produce original TV shows and movies that not a lot of people watch.” This has supposedly led Apple services boss Eddy Cue to meet with TV+ chiefs Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht to have a more controlled approach to spending.
Bloomberg notes that Amburg and Erlicht have actually been trying to combat the perception that Apple is the “biggest spender in town.” That’s because while Netflix still pays the most overall on large volumes of content, Apple is known for shelling out lots of cash for just a few titles.
For example, Apple spent around $700 million USD (about $962 million) on just three 2023 theatrical films, Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon and Argylle. Meanwhile, only one of them, Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed, Oscar-nominated drama Killers of the Flower Moon, had any tangible form of success, with the other two receiving lukewarm reviews and box office hauls.
But Apple’s straight-to-streaming titles are also reportedly not really moving the needle. Bloomberg reports that Apple spends “billions of dollars a year on original programming that has received strong reviews and many award nominations,” but it attracts just 0.2 percent of TV viewing in the U.S., per TV ratings tracker Nielsen. To put that into context, Netflix is said to generate more viewing in one day than Apple TV+ does in an entire month.
When it comes to Apple, we have to turn to external data from Nielsen because the tech giant doesn’t divulge TV+ subscriber data. (That said, Bloomberg notes that Nielsen’s data is incomplete since it only captures U.S. audiences on some devices.) By comparison, Netflix confirmed just last week that it has surpassed 277 million paying subscribers, which was above analyst estimates.
Despite initial controversy, Netflix’s lower-cost, ad-enabled membership and password-sharing paywalls have helped the company grow. At the same time, Bloomberg says “subscriber growth has been weak” for Apple TV+.
Going forward, Bloomberg notes that Apple will change its approach to TV+ in a few notable ways besides just reducing spending. For one, the company will look to partner studios to shoulder more of the financial burden, as well as cancel more of its less successful shows.
Perhaps more interestingly, Bloomberg says Apple will start licensing some content. Since TV+’s inception in November 2019, Apple has prided itself on focusing entirely on original productions for the service. It’s unclear what sorts of third-party titles Apple may choose to bring to its platform.
As a final tidbit, Bloomberg notes that Apple is interested in more seasons of Severance, a series that also best exemplifies this entire story. On the one hand, it’s one of Apple TV+’s most acclaimed series, but on the other, it’s gone significantly over budget, with Apple reportedly spending over $20 million USD (about $27.5 million CAD) per episode. (That’s even more than the cost of House of the Dragon Season 1 episodes, for context.
It remains to be seen what will ultimately come out of Apple’s TV+ cost-cutting efforts.
Image credit: Apple
Source: Bloomberg
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