Apple drives to build all-new streaming video service from scratch

“Apple’s media streaming service is arriving very soon, and tidbits are starting to emerge on just what the much-anticipated offering will look like,” Annie Gaus reports for The Street. “The unnamed services offering is expected to be announced on March 25, when Apple is holding a special event at its Cupertino headquarters under the theme ‘It’s show time.'”
“According to a Bloomberg report Wednesday, Apple is racing to rack up media deals in advance of the March 25 event, with a deadline of Friday to ink television and film agreements that will flesh out Apple’s original streaming content,” Gaus reports. “Apple is reportedly in talks with AT&T which owns HBO, CBS Corp, which owns Showtime, Lions Gate Entertainment, which owns Starz, and others. The outside content would be offered alongside programming either funded, developed or purchased by Apple.”
“Throughout 2018, Apple revealed a handful of production partnerships with high-profile creators such as Oprah Winfrey, Jennifer Aniston and Steven Spielberg. But because many of those content initiatives are still in development, launching with a slate of popular outside content may make a big difference. Several of the programming deals Apple is pursuing are expected to go through, but parties are still haggling over the finer points according to Bloomberg,” Gaus reports. “According to Wedbush’s Dan Ives, a realistic medium-term goal for Apple — meaning three to five years out — would be 100 million subscribers provided that it executes its media streaming plan with minimal speed bumps… Apple has one not-so-secret weapon — its loyal installed base of 1.4 billion active devices, including 900 million iPhones.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We expect there will be at least some original content available at launch which we also expect on or near its March 25th reveal.