The company is expected to unveil its plans for a reimagined Apple TV app that will be home to a streaming service with original content of exclusive TV shows and movies. Photo / 123RF
The company is expected to unveil its plans for a reimagined Apple TV app that will be home to a streaming service with original content of exclusive TV shows and movies. Photo / 123RF
Apple is about will host one of its most significant product events in years.
The company is expected to unveil its plans for a reimagined Apple TV app that will be home to a streaming service with original content of exclusive TV shows and movies.
However, like the tech giant's current Apple TV and iTunes offerings, its usefulness will largely depend on how much content is made available in this part of the world amid Sky TV others locking down local rights to a lot of content.
The tech giant is also expected to reveal a news and magazine subscription service giving users access to editorial and news articles for a monthly fee at the event early Tuesday morning (NZ time).
Apple has signed Oprah to produce original content for the service. Photo / Getty Images
While Apple's streaming play will compete with the likes of Netflix in the increasingly crowded streaming wars, the platform will integrate other content providers allowing Apple users to access a range of streaming services from within the app. Well, at least the ones Apple has been able to convince to come on board. Notably, Netflix has confirmed it won't be.
Apple has reportedly spent more than $1.3 billion in the past year or so producing content and snapping up exclusive rights. It looks as though Apple is going for a mass market, family-friendly appeal with its TV shows and has signed Oprah to produce original content for the service.
Among the numerous shows reportedly commissioned include a drama about a morning TV show featuring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, a revival of Steven Spielberg's Amazing Stories that briefly ran in the 1980s, an M. Night Shyamalan thriller series, and a comedy series about the early life of American poet Emily Dickinson.
Fans of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia will be pleased as creator Rob McElhenney and co-star Charlie Day are said to be producing a comedy series about a video game company for the Apple platform.
And the couple behind indie film The Big Sick, husband-and-wife team Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon are set to produce a series about immigrants called Little America.
It’s show time. Tune in March 25th at 10 a.m. PT to watch our #AppleEvent live on Twitter.
Last week Apple announced a string of product updates, including new iPads, iMac upgrades and AirPods 2. The intention was clear: get all that out of the way to put the focus on Tuesday's big event.
This is all about Apple ramping up the growth of the Services part of its business that includes the App Store, Apple Music, iCloud storage, and AppleCare warranties.
The move into these new categories is a huge moment for the company and as US analyst Dan Ives told Bloomberg, the stakes are high.
"This is a pivotal shift for Apple and in our opinion, the biggest strategic move since the iPhone was unveiled in 2007," he said. "There is massive pressure on Cook and Apple to deliver on services, with streaming content a potential linchpin of growth."
Early rumours suggested some of the content will be free for Apple customers but there will definitely be a subscription model to all this. It's possible Apple could bundle its video streaming service with Apple Music and other services to provide a similar deal to Amazon Prime.
Apple's TV app is shipped on all iOS devices and on Apple TV boxes putting the streaming ecosystem at the fingertips of hundreds of millions of users. But how non-Apple customers will be able to access it remains to be seen.
The company recently announced an iTunes Movies and TV app for Samsung televisions that could perhaps soon be expanding to other non-Apple devices. A web browser would also seem like a likely outcome.
