Stars herald Apple’s entry into streaming
CUPERTINO, California — Jumping belatedly into a business dominated by Netflix and Amazon, Apple announced its own TV and movie streaming service on Monday, trying to overcome its rivals’ head start.
Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Aniston were part of a parade of A-listers who took the stage at Apple headquarters, where the main attractions usually are the company’s latest high-tech gadgets.
This time, though, it was the likes of Big Bird and Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, who took the spotlight at Apple’s latest live-streamed product launch.
“I’m joining forces with Apple,” declared Winfrey. “They’re in a billion pockets, y’all.”
Apple didn’t disclose the price or the launch date of its streaming service except to say that Apple TV Plus will be available this fall. It will feature Apple’s original shows and movies.
Chief executive Tim Cook gave what he called “a sneak peek” of the tech giant’s plans to transform television viewing and jump — some analysts say belatedly — into the streaming business that Netflix has pioneered.
The service will debut in more than 100 countries and feature ad-free programming. It was unveiled as an extension of Apple’s redesigned TV app, which will bundle third-party services such as HBO, CBS and Showtime, along with a user’s cable subscription and some streaming services, such as Hulu. Netflix has said it won’t partake.
Video will be delivered
to iphones and ipads, Apple’s own Apple TV device, smart TVS and, soon, streaming gadgets from Roku and Amazon.
The video-streaming venture is fraught with risk for a company scrambling to diversify beyond its star product, the iphone, whose sales have started to decline. Netflix, which started its streaming service in 2007, has 139 million subscribers worldwide.
But Apple has lots of money, more than 900 million active iphones, and a track record for innovation that has enabled it to overtake its rivals, even when it enters a business late, as it did with smartphones, tablets and smartwatches.
In the past, of course, Apple has mostly jumped into relatively small and undeveloped markets. Streaming video, by contrast, is dominated by huge services such as Netflix, Amazon and Hulu, with more seeming to be bowing
into the competition daily, including AT&T’S Warnermedia, Disney and Comcast.
“Great competitors make for great consumer experiences,” Netflix said in a statement. Netflix stock rose $5.22 to $366.23 on Monday, while Apple’s fell $2.31 to $188.74.
Among the upcoming programs on the new Apple service will be Winfrey-created documentaries; a show about TV morning talk shows, starring Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell; a futuristic drama starting Momoa; and a sci-fi show called “Amazing Stories” from Spielberg.
Apple was long focused on making on gadgets: iphones, ipads, computers. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs toyed with the idea of building a powerful TV business but couldn’t pull it off before his death in 2011. It has taken his successor, Cook, nearly eight years to draw up the plan the company will now try to execute.
“Apple is very late to this game,” emarketer analyst Paul Verna said. “Netflix has become the Oprah Winfrey was among the Hollywood stars who joined Apple CEO Tim Cook to announce Apple’s new streaming service, which will debut in the fall. The company did not disclose the price for the service. gold standard in how to create and distribute content, using all the data they have about their viewers.”
Industry analyst Colin Gillis of Chatham Road Partners said Apple TV Plus is “not going to be a Netflix killer.” And Martin Garner of CCS Insights said the service so far lacks “the full range and diversity of content available through Netflix, Amazon and others.”
Apple also unveiled a news subscription service that will give customers access to roughly 300 magazines and a few major newspapers for $10 a month.
Apple News Plus will include such major papers as The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times. Other major newspaper publishers reportedly have been wary of Apple’s terms.
Apple said advertisers won’t track readers inside the app. The company took several opportunities to emphasize user privacy — and indirectly take a jab at rivals. Apple said its news service won’t use your news preferences and spending history to sell advertising, unlike Facebook, Google and other tech companies that have come under fire for the amount of data they collect on users to sell advertising.
The company also announced a new Mastercard credit card, launching the Apple Card credit card for iphones. Apple and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. are joining forces to offer the card, which is tied to Apple Pay, a service that lets people load banking information and pay in stores or use it for purchases online. It works globally where Apple Pay is accepted.
Apple also is introducing a subscription program for gaming, just days after Google unveiled a cloud-based gaming plan.
The service, called Apple Arcade, will be integrated into the App Store and will include more than 100 games exclusive to the service and Apple’s platform. The games will synchronize across iphones, ipads, Mac computers and Apple TVS, and will work offline, the company said. The service won’t launch until the fall and the company said it will disclose pricing at a later date.