After a rocky start, Apple TV+ has become a must-have subscription. When Apple first started offering its own streaming service, they used big-name celebrities to launch prestige originals. However, the shows fell flat and there weren’t many premieres. Even at just $5 per month, I predicted it would be a bad deal ahead of its release.
Then came the comedy series “Ted Lasso”, which in the beginning came along in the summer of 2020 and had loyal viewers captivated due to its word-of-mouth success. The Emmy awarded “Ted Lasso” for best comedy TV show last year, achieving it’s success in a little over a year on Apple screens when compared with Netflix’s decade-long process.
The company continues to impress with a total of four Emmys, an Oscar win, and critical acclaim for shows like “Severance” and “For All Mankind.”
A survey released by Whip Media in June found that Apple TV+ was the streaming service that had experienced the greatest increase in satisfaction from 2021 to 2022, from 62% to 76%.
Apple has released their new streaming service, Apple TV+, and the subscription analytics firm Antenna estimated that it has over 16 million subscribers. This puts them three times smaller than other streaming services like Disney+ (138 million) and Paramount+ (40 million), but slightly ahead of Peacock (13 million).
Apple brings a new generation of TV to its services.
Apple TV+ reflects commitment to its streaming services business
Apple’s bread and butter is in its products, and its services are more of an extension of those. If Apple can drive customers through its products to its services — which also include iCloud, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, and more — then that’s an added bonus.
Apple TV+ gives Apple CEO Tim Cook more tools to grow their services business, which is highly profitable and the highest margin among the company’s businesses. Services accounted for 20% of Apple’s total sales in 2020.
In their quarterly earnings report, Apple reported 12% year-over-year revenue growth for services. In that same quarter they reported that they have 825 million subscribers.
Revenue growth was slower than expected year-over-year, but revenue still expanded when zoomed out.
Apple has released acclaimed TV shows and movies, and it is thinking about making a move on the sports industry next.
Apple’s streaming service had little success in the beginning.
“The Morning Show,” with stars like Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell leading the show, was a major miss with critics. “See,” with a large budget and fantasy-based subject matter, performed even worse, receiving just a 44% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Even though FOX All Access has a limited collection of licensed titles and sometimes runs classic shows like 24, they didn’t make me want to buy their service.
Apple TV+ seemed to be gaining momentum with original programming after its launch.
- The Morning Show and See have become widely enjoyed by critics, with For All Mankind now one of the best shows on TV.
- It was the first streaming service to recieve an Oscar, from its film “CODA,” beating Netflix to the prize.
- The stellar show, “Severance,” was named one of the best shows so far by Rolling Stone and AV Club. The TV series is full of Emmy nominations this year as well including for Ted Lasso and “Ted Lasso.”
The New York Times predicts that Apple will be the frontrunner to win the rights for NFL Sunday Ticket.
The tech giants want to dominate everything. Apple is well positioned in the streaming space with Major League Baseball as well, and streaming other types of events is on the horizon for them.
Apple TV+ still has to build a catalog of licensed content, and in that regard it can’t compete with Netflix, HBO Max, and others. However, there are a decent amount of originals I watch compared to the amount that it has. It’s also inexpensive at that.
4 Comments