Skip to main content

Apple announces Apple TV Plus video subscription service

By

After years of speculation and on-again, off-again rumors, Apple has finally unveiled its biggest push into streaming video: Apple TV Plus. CEO Tim Cook just announced the service — featuring Apple’s original programming — alongside a redesigned, more advanced Apple TV app at the Steve Jobs Theater. “As you can tell, today is going to be a very different kind of event,” Cook said to kick things off.

The introduction of Apple TV Plus, which the company says will become “the new home for the world’s most creative storytellers featuring exclusive original shows, movies and documentaries” was led by a video featuring Hollywood director Steven Spielberg and stars attached to the shows that will help shape Apple’s service.

Spielberg said that he will be resurrecting the 93-year-old Amazing Stories brand for Apple TV Plus. Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell then took the stage to discuss another Apple original called The Morning Show. The parade of celebrities (including Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, Kumail Nanjiani, J.J. Abrams, Sara Bareilles, and even Big Bird) continued on, with each going over the many shows headed to Apple TV Plus — eventually.



Apple is expected to spend $2 billion this year on original content that it hopes can stand toe to toe with shows from Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and others. But it’s got some catching up to do (Netflix is spending billions more in 2019), and the company didn’t show trailers or clips for many of the projects it went over, as a good number are still in the works. It did show a short video montage featuring several shows, however.

Apple TV Plus will be ad-free, available on demand, and viewable both online and offline. Apple plans to launch it in over 100 countries sometime this fall, though it did not disclose pricing today. But you’ll access Apple TV Plus through the redesigned Apple TV app on iOS, Mac, Roku, Fire TV, and televisions from various manufacturers.


Aside from making a big originals push, Apple is equally focused on making its Apple TV app, which is free to use, the centerpiece of a consumer’s various video subscriptions. Onstage, the company announced Apple TV Channels, which will let customers pay for HBO, Showtime, Starz, CBS All Access, and other services directly through the TV app and watch everything there, too. Apple will be handling the streams and promises top-tier picture and audio quality for all Apple TV Channels it offers. A redesigned TV app is coming in May, and Apple says it will make finding the latest must-watch shows easier and surface recommendations from over 150 third-party video apps that Apple will offer.

Image: Apple

“We designed a new TV experience where you can pay for only the channels you want, all in one app, with the password you already have,” said Apple’s Peter Stern. “Watch everything on demand and ad-free. Download your shows to take with you anywhere. Enjoy the highest quality picture and sound available,” he said. The Apple TV app has been entirely redesigned to let you watch everything in one place, whereas the old one would switch you over to third-party apps when it actually came time to watch something. “No more bouncing around from app to app,” Stern said. There are some exceptions to that, however: Netflix isn’t backing the new TV app, and so it doesn’t offer this integration. But it sounds like even Amazon and Hulu will allow their content to be watched within the Apple TV app, which is a significant achievement for Apple.

Image: Apple

In January, Tim Cook said Apple had reached 1.4 billion active iOS devices; those screens (and the TV app that comes preinstalled on them) will be critical to the service’s success. Today, Apple confirmed the TV app will be coming to the Mac soon, and the company has also announced an iTunes Movies and TV app for Samsung TVs, just one step to reach customers beyond its own devices. That same app will be coming to televisions from Sony, LG, Vizio, and others.

Serving as a hub for video subscriptions isn’t a new idea: Amazon started down this path with its add-on Prime Video Channels, which allow Prime members to stream programming from third parties like HBO, Showtime, Starz, CBS, and others by paying for each service separately through their Amazon billing account. Convenience is really the name of the game, and putting everything in one place is much simpler for people who are trying to track what they’re spending on these services. Apple’s execution is a bit different since it doesn’t require a major service like Prime as a prerequisite before consumers can buy subscriptions. So the barrier of entry is lower. Apple will be taking a cut of each subscription it sells, which will help further boost revenues for the company’s services division. That’s crucial as Apple looks for other reliable profit sources in a world of flat iPhone sales. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Please give some suggestions or share your experience here...

Popular posts from this blog

No more 'No questions asked': Amazon will ban you permanently if you return too many items

By
Till now, Amazon's policy spared the customer disputes with couriers, sellers and manufacturers over defective or unsuitable goods. But not anymore. One reason online retailers such as  Amazon  have been able to pull customers from brick-and-mortar stores is the 'no questions asked' return policy. Anyone can return an item within 30 days without having to give an explanation. This policy spared the customer disputes with couriers, sellers and manufacturers over defective or unsuitable goods. But not anymore. Amazon USA    has started quizzing customers over returned items and has even banned accounts from which even 10% of ordered items were returned, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. A number of customers have shared their experience on Twitter. A customer tweeted a letter she got from Amazon, asking her to explain why she had returned so many items in the past 12 months. She said she purchased 50 things and returned only six which coul...
Post a Comment
Read more

8 Ways to Download Paid Apps for Free in 2019

By
The highly-referred quote, “ the best things in life are free “, by French fashion designer  Coco Chanel  is often read without the part succeeding it, “ the second best are very expensive “. Looking at this from the perspective of smartphones, you’ll agree that while some of the greatest apps for both Android and iOS are the ones available for free, there are many great apps which require you to pay. For example, while games like PUBG Mobile and Fortnite are great examples for the dandy freebies, other games like Final Fantasy, Limbo, The Room Series, and more are not. If only there was a way to get paid apps for free. Well, for those of you who do not wish to (or cannot, for some reason) pay for such apps and games, we have listed some of the sources you can use to  grab paid apps for free legally . Most of the options listed here will serve Android users whereas a few apply to iOS, Windows, and macOS users as well. Get Paid Apps For Free Using ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Apple sold fewer iPhones but made more money thanks to the iPhone

By
Apple’s  first quarterly earnings reports for 2018  are in, and the  company has reported  that  it sold 77.3 million iPhones in Q1 2018  (which includes the holiday season). That number is down 1.24 percent year over year from last year (78.3 million). But despite the slump in sales, iPhone revenue increased overall year over year, up 11.69 percent from $54.38 billion to $61.58 billion. While predictions for the average sale price of iPhone units sold during the quarter ranged from $710 to $755, the actual ASP was $796 (compared to $694 in Q1 2017), which directly explains the increase of revenue despite the decrease in sales. That said, despite the record revenue, analysts were still expecting a slight increase of approximately 1.5 percent year over year for units shipped, not a decrease. My estimate for iPhone units was expecting a lot more iPhone 8 with an average pricing of $710. Actual ASP was $796. A LOT of iPhon...
Post a Comment
Read more