When it launched in 2019, Apple TV+, the streaming platform that had the backing of the world’s richest corporation and therefore the financial freedom to do things that other platforms couldn’t afford, promised subscribers big-budget, star-studded offerings directed by some of the biggest names in the entertainment business.
Observers weren’t sure why Apple CEO Tim Cook wanted to get into the streaming business and Hollywood producers were nervous that Apple would dabble for a while in the streaming waters before quietly sinking after not taking any risks with its content. All content would be original as the service said it would not license existing content but rather create its own.
Studio executives at Apple went for the big and bold decision to create all-new content and with a seemingly limitless budget, they could lure big names that made the rest of the industry sit up and take notice. Deals were signed with Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Jason Momoa and directors Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and Matthew Vaughn. There was early Emmy and popular success for shows like Ted Lasso, The Morning Show and the Oscar-winning Coda.
Now, it seems the chickens are coming home to roost at the platform, which, after five years of critically acclaimed and award-winning programming, isn’t seeing the kind of growth in subscriber numbers needed to justify spending the money it has been.
While the company doesn’t release subscriber numbers and does little promotion for its shows, only four of its shows have broken into the Nielsen ratings weekly list of the 10 most watched programmes in all that time and box office losses for big-budget gambles like Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Scott’s Napoleon and Vaughn’s Argylle haven’t helped the service to move beyond its current standing.
Bloomberg data shows it has only 0.2% of total US viewing time per month. Those films cost hundreds of millions to make and a further $250m went into the Steven Spielberg-Tom Hanks produced World War 2 series Masters of the Air. While the films, especially Scorsese’s, received strong reviews and award nominations, they haven’t seen the kind of upswing in subscriber numbers that Apple would have liked.
Ballooning production costs have also meant that whereas previously, shows on Apple TV + were almost guaranteed an average run of three to four seasons, new policies have seen that fall to two. Likewise, its original commitment to produce and air only Apple original content looks set to be a thing of the past as rumours are now spreading that the service is in the market to license content from other studios.
All of which begs the questions: why is it about to do what its competitors do (when it was willing to break the mould and carve its own path only five years ago) and why is it doing this in a year when its shows earned a record 22 Emmy nominations?
Apple has long claimed that part of its success is that it invests in entertainment to sell Apple devices, incentivising customers to buy its products, unlike other platforms, which are geared towards investing in entertainment to make money in Hollywood. But, even as sales of Apple products keep rising, that no longer seems enough to keep that strategy in place at the studio that is seen as the new HBO for original content.
The “Apple tax” — the assumption that because the company is worth $3-trillion it can afford to spend far more than other studios on taking risks on content — seems to be about to become a thing of the past. Instead, reports show that the company is now rejecting shows that it would almost have been guaranteed to put money behind a few years ago and ordering less original projects to series.
Apple is also considering making third-party producers take on more of the costs when shows go over production, acting like most studios would, had they spent $20bn over the past five years to produce original content that isn’t seeing the subscriber rewards that merit the costs.
At a time when most of the major studios with investments in the streaming universe, including Amazon, Disney and Netflix, have instituted cost-cutting measures, even the big-spending, freewheeling Apple TV+ has been forced to face reality. That’s a shame for audiences because the studio has produced some of the most innovative and interesting new television. Those subscribers who have become addicted to shows like Severance, Foundation and The Morning Show may have to prepare themselves for long waits between seasons or the complete end to those shows. It won’t as yet, according to most reports, result in job losses at the studio’s TV division, but it will cost audiences.
For now, though, it’s clear that Apple TV+ will not increase transparency on its spending and subscriber numbers or spend more money to market its offerings.
Apple TV+ fans can only hope that the service doesn’t decide to introduce an ad-tier service to finally bring it down to the desperate, nakedly profit-driven level of its competitors, though that’s probably not far off. What was once the little streamer with heart and quality, will end up being just another over-flooded mess.
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