Apple is rich. Richer than mortal man can comprehend. As a corporation, they are positively floating in cash. So of course they were going to spend big when they barged their way into streaming.
The quality showed. Quickly, Apple TV+ became the streamer nobody really talked about, but that everyone knew had absolutely great shows.
Ted Lasso, Hijack, Slow Horses, Silo, For All Mankind, Severance, Shrinking, The Morning Show, and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters all became shows that people talked about, quality-wise, even as the behemoths of Apple and Netflix and Disney grabbed all the headlines.
According to a new report in Bloomberg, even the largesse of Apple can’t continue in the new streaming reality. The expansion is over, the contraction has begun, and Apple also needs to pull it’s horns in.
According to the report, Apple insiders have said that services boss Eddy Cue has been having regular meetings with Apple TV+ chiefs Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht. The topic of conversation – budgets. Specifically the size of them. Apple TV+ has a reputation as “the biggest spender in town”, so says the report.
So far it has spent over $20 billion to produce original TV shows and movies for the service.
The issue… it is simply not driving any growth for them. $500 million combined on Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, and Matthew Vaughn films. $250 million on Masters of the Air. Severance at $20 million per episode. It doesn’t matter – nobody is watching them!
According to the Nielsen ratings, only Masters of the Air hit the rankings, and even then it was lower than a Japanese-language soap opera about ninjas on Netflix.
Traditionally Apple employees have pushed back on the Nielsen figures. They claim Nielsen is inaccurate, incomplete, and imperfect, and that their entire system has failed to adapt to changes in the viewing landscape.