Do Apple TV Plus shows have to be good to succeed?

Apple TV Plus wants potential subscribers to be excited about streaming. It’s launching with four big-budget shows featuring household names. But early reviews tell a different story, one where Apple’s presence in an oversaturated streaming space doesn’t seem necessary. Negative reviews right out of the gate aren’t improving Apple’s chances, but that doesn’t mean the streaming platform’s future is doomed.

At $4.99 a month, Apple TV Plus is one of the cheapest streaming services entering the “streaming wars” space. It’s not a Netflix killer or even a Netflix competitor. This isn’t the streaming service you’ll cancel Hulu for. Apple knows this. That’s why the company is giving anyone who purchases an Apple product, new or refurbished, a free year of TV Plus. Five friends and family members can watch for free via Apple’s Family Sharing plan, too. In order to get people’s attention and keep them coming back month after month, Apple is offering its shows on a silver platter.

The streaming service is launching with shows designed to make a splash. The Morning Show,a #MeToo tale, stars some of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors, including Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell. Each episode cost more than $15 million to make, and Aniston and Witherspoon are raking in $1 million per episode. Game of Thronesalum and Aquaman himself, Jason Momoa, is headlining See, another show that cost about $15 million an episode. That’s more than most networks pay on their long-running shows, including AMC’s The Walking Dead, the most popular show on television.

The next year will bring even more original programming, including M. Night Shyamalan’s Servantand the Octavia Spencer-led series Truth Be Told. Apple isn’t cutting any costs; in fact, it’s doing the opposite, upping its spending from $1 billion to $6 billion. The company is also recruiting A-list stars like Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds for a Christmas movie that reportedly cost more than $60 million on talent costs alone, teaming up with prestigious studios like A24 and working with Oscar-winning directors such as Alfonso Cuarón to build a library of prestigious, possibly award-winning films.

Apple launching its first four shows at once amplifies critics’ frustrations. One disappointing show might be acceptable, but four is being painted as disastrous. Today, Netflix is host to thousands of movies and TV shows, but its first four original shows — Orange Is the New Black,House of Cards, Arrested Development(season 4), and Hemlock Grove— hit the service over the course of a year beginning in 2013. Hell, it took Hulu years to find footing with shows like The Handmaid’s Tale. Even now, it still doesn’t have the same offerings as Netflix. Amazon released its first four original series — Transparent, Mozart in the Jungle, Betas,and Alpha House— over the course of two years. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon were given space to find their voices and flourish. It’s ridiculous to think that Apple would be able to do it in its first attempt.

There are some unquestionable winners; Transparentand House of Cardswon multiple Emmys and helped establish their respective services as actual entertainment players. Does anyone really have fond memories of watching Lilyhammer? Arrested Development’s fourth season is so detested that Netflix hid it before a remixed version of the season was released. And who remembers Betas, Alpha House, Flaked, Bosch, Goliath, Chance,or East Los High? The difference is that Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon had the ability and leeway to space each new series out and test the waters.

Apple doesn’t have that option. The company isn’t licensing programs from other distributors like WarnerMedia, NBCUniversal, or Sony to create a library. In order to compete with giants like the aforementioned three streaming services as well as new entrants from Disney (Disney+), AT&T (WarnerMedia’s HBO Max), and Comcast (NBCUniversal’s Peacock), Apple needed more than one or two shows. Nine TV shows and movies isn’t the same as having a couple of original titles for people to watch nestled between thousands of licensed and beloved series and films. But all things considered? Apple hired its head of TV Plus content just two years ago. Its launch lineup quantity is an impressive feat. Quantity is important to streaming, but quality is what keeps people coming back. That’s where Apple needs to pick up in order to thrive, according to analyst Eric Haggstrom at eMarketer.

“Viewers aren’t critics,” Haggstrom told The Verge. “People will watch these shows, regardless of what critics say. Whether they continue to watch them after a month depends on quality. When Netflix started offering original content, it was different from the world that we live in now. There are tons of different services that are offering high-quality originals.”

It took Amazon and Netflix time to build a solid catalog. Netflix increased its content budget from an estimated $2.4 billion in 2013 to $15 billion in 2019— a growth of more than seven times its original spending. Amazon started to build out into original films, winning two Oscars for the Casey Affleck-led Manchester by the Seain 2017.

Apple has a few key advantages over Netflix that should help it succeed, despite a less-than-stellar start. First, there’s its nearly unlimited budget: it’s spending more than $6 billion on various shows and movies, including $15 million per episode on The Morning Show. It has the right creative partners, like Oprah Winfrey, J.J. Abrams, and Alfonso Cuarón. And it has the means to provide creators with whatever they need.

“Apple’s very serious about this,” Haggstrom said. “They are investing a lot of money into the service so that it’s not a side project. This isn’t an afterthought at all.”

Apple is a trillion-dollar company with more than $210 billion in cash, not an orphan timidly asking for scraps, but the service needs a chance. Executives take time to find their voice, something any writer or creative will tell you is constantly aspirational and extremely difficult to achieve. Even Netflix is still figuring it out. Apple TV Plus may end up with another Planet of the Appsdisaster, but if any company is ambitious and relentless enough to keep going until it strikes gold, it’s Apple.

Source: The Verge

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