Apple is reportedly considering producing original TV shows and movies in 2017, expanding its streaming services to compete with the likes of Netflix and Amazon.
The Wall Street Journal report, citing ‘people familiar with the matter’ claims Apple has set its sites on original content to offset sales of iPhones and iPads.
Apple has already managed to build an impressive music streaming service, which has racked up 17 million subscribers since launching in June 2015. But the company is yet to expand into original TV and movie content.
Related: Apple TV review
Last March, Apple executive Eddy Cue spoke to the New York Post following the news that the firm was working on a TV show about app developers
Cue told The Post: “This doesn’t mean that we are going into a huge amount of movie production or TV production or anything like that.”
But it seems, if the WSJ report is anything to go by, that things have changed, though Apple has had some significant trouble establishing its own streaming service since last March.
Apple TV
In September the company was reported to have put its TV streaming ambitions on hold, which was seemingly confirmed by CBS CEO Les Moonves.
Moonves also told CNNMoney last November: “We had conversations awhile back, and we haven’t had recent conversations with them,” suggesting the streaming plans had been postponded.
This week’s report that Apple is indeed moving forward with the plans follows the firm’s acquisition of James Corden’s Carpool Karaoke.
There’s been no official word from the company, of course, so there’s no way to know exactly what Tim Cook and co. have planned in the TV/film department.
Whatever’s happening behind the scenes, we wouldn’t be surprised if we heard more about Apple’s original content ambitions in the coming months so stay tuned.
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Let us know what you think of the report in the comments.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
