Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing Its TV Shows?

Speaking of streaming services, an anonymous reader shares a story that looks into Apple's entertainment offering: Ever since its launch in 2019, Apple TV+ has been carving out an identity as the new home for prestige shows from some of Hollywood's biggest names -- the kind of shows that sound natural coming out of Jimmy Kimmel's mouth in monologue jokes at the Emmys. While the company never provides spending details, Apple is estimated to have spent at least $20 billion recruiting the likes of Reese Witherspoon, M. Night Shayamalan, and Harrison Ford to help cultivate its award-worthy sheen. For all the effort Apple has expended, and for all the cultural excitement around Ted Lasso during its three-season run, the streaming service has won nearly 500 Emmys... while attracting just 0.2% of total TV viewing in the U.S.

No wonder the company reportedly began reining in its spending spree recently. (Apple did not reply to a request for comment.) 'It seems like Apple TV wants to be seen as a platform that's numbers-agnostic,' says Ashley Ray, comedian, TV writer, and host of the erstwhile podcast TV I Say. 'They wanna be known for being about the creativity and the love of making TV shows, even if nobody's watching them.'

The experience of enjoying a new Apple TV+ series can often be a lonely one. Adventurous subscribers might see an in-network ad about something like last summer's Sunny, the timely, genre-bending Rashida Jones series about murderous AI, and give it a shot -- only to find that nobody else is talking about it in their social media feeds or around the company Keurig machine. Sure, the same could be said for hundreds of other streaming series in the post-monoculture era, but most streaming companies aren't consistently landing as much marquee talent for such a limited library. (Apple currently has 259 TV shows and films compared to Netflix's nearly 16,000.)

How is it possible for a streaming service to have as much high-pedigree programming as Apple TV+ does and so relatively few viewers, despite an estimated 25 million paid subscribers? How can shows starring Natalie Portman, Idris Elba, and Colin Farrell launch and even get renewed without ever quite grazing the zeitgeist? How does a show set in the same Monsterverse as Godzilla vs. Kong, and starring Kurt Russell and his roguishly charming son, not become a monster-size hit?

For many perplexed observers, the blame falls squarely on Apple's marketing efforts, or seeming lack thereof.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.