Tim Cook: This is why we decided to do Apple TV+

In a new interview published on Wednesday, Apple CEO Tim Cook reveals the reason why Apple is in the movies and TV businesses, spending hundreds of millions on potential blockbusters like “F1: The Movie,” and why it’s about more than selling iPhones.
Cynthia Littleton for Variety:
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“F1” marks a big milestone for Apple in its expansion over the past half-dozen years of making movies and TV shows. Apple is banking on Kosinski and the team behind 2022’s hit “Top Gun: Maverick” to deliver a four-quadrant smash that will be measured as much for its impact on pop culture and filmmaking as it will be in box office receipts…
In Cook’s view, “F1” is the perfect vehicle to test Apple’s power to affect culture with the soft power of a broad-appeal movie rather than through the hardware of its computers and smartphones…
Cook has a clear vision for what Apple TV+ and Apple Original Films bring to the company. “We stand at the intersection of technology and the liberal arts,” Cook says. “We wanted Apple TV+ to be a place where great storytellers would tell their best stories.”

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MacDailyNews Take: Steve Jobs, March 2, 2011 special event for iPad 2:
“It’s in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough. It’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”

“We elected not to go out and procure a catalog. I know that’s a faster way into the business, but it didn’t feel like Apple at the end of the day,” Cook says. “Apple should have something that we pour our passion into, and that’s exactly what we’re doing with the shows. And now you can see us hitting a stride. It feels wonderful.”
“We studied it for years before we decided to do [Apple TV+]. I know there’s a lot of different views out there about why we’re into it. We’re into it to tell great stories, and we want it to be a great business as well. That’s why we’re into it, just plain and simple.”
“I don’t have it in my mind that I’m going to sell more iPhones because of it,” Cook says. “I don’t think about that at all. I think about it as a business. And just like we leverage the best of Apple across iPhones and across our services, we try to leverage the best of Apple TV+.”
The service’s run of late — Seth Rogen’s “The Studio,” Jon Hamm-starrer “Your Friends and Neighbors,” Season 2 of “Severance,” Jason Segel and Harrison Ford in “Shrinking,” Gary Oldman in “Slow Horses,” Cate Blanchett in “Disclaimer,” Kristen Wiig and Carol Burnett in “Palm Royale,” Joel Edgerton and Jennifer Connelly in “Dark Matter” — has been particularly strong. Like the smooth blond wood and sanded white marble in the buildings at Apple Park, the list of A-listers doing business with Apple goes on forever.

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MacDailyNews Take: Yup.
Those who can wrap their heads around Apple’s massive cash mountain and the company’s unparalleled ability to generate cash can clearly see who the winner will be. The most talented producers, writers, directors, editors, actors, etc. are attracted to exactly what Apple has and makes in vast abundance: Cash. The king.
Like bears to honey, it’s happening already. — MacDailyNews, January 3, 2018
Apple’s average daily profit in fiscal year 2024 was approximately $256.8 million. Apple’s annual spending on Apple TV+, Apple Original Films, and Apple Studios, which is estimated to be around $4.5 billion in 2025, can go on basically forever as it’s equivalent to about 17.52 days of Apple’s average daily profit (which continues to grow).

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