I’m something of a latecomer to Apple’s streaming service, TV+. That’s been more to do with time than any particular aversion to the content it makes. But it’s also that, sometimes, I’m looking for comfort TV. And that means falling back to stuff I’ve seen before that I’ve liked.
Apple has taken a different approach to other streamers. Almost all others leverage licensed properties and content produced by different studios and media. For example, back in 2018 Netflix paid USD$100M for all 236 episodes of Friends. Disney has spend countless millions on acquiring Marvel and Star Wars for content and intellectual property to complement its own massive catalog.
That content is a known quantity to viewers looking for something they know they’ll like without the risk of watching something they might not like. Or, perhaps they just don;t want to invest energy into getting to know new characters and worlds.
That lack of familiar content might be an obstacle to some potential viewers. But my interest was piqued when Apple had a special offer of trying the service for $3.99 per month for three months and I’d reached the end of what I watching on another service. So I’ve dived in with three shows.
The three shows I’ve jumped into are
- Severance
- Silo
- See
There’s a recurring theme in all three of a somewhat dystopian future of world where something has been twisted just enough to make the story compelling and believing without forcing viewers to make massive leaps.
I did watch a few episodes of Ted Lasso as well. And it follows a similar idea of taking something a little extreme without stretching the bounds of reality in a way that forces the viewer to make ridiculous leaps of logic and reality.
The one thing you won’t find on TV+ is lots of licensed intellectual property (IP). There are some exceptions. Peanuts, featuring favourites like Charlie Brown, Lucy and Snoopy, is there. And there’s a significant amount of content from DreamWorks, the studio that created Shrek, and Skydance Animation. But that content is exclusive to Apple.
Apple also licenses movies from studios but its library is unlikely to concern the other streamers.
Apple’s approach is much riskier. Instead of using the familiar to attract subscribers, it is relying on the production of its own, high quality content to build an audience slowly. This fits with Apple’s typical business model. The goal is not to necessarily be the biggest but to create something that is different to the rest of the market.
Interestingly, Apple is looking at the potential of licensing some of the content it creates to other streamers outside the USA in an effort to boost revenues for the service.
Unlike streamers that have access to massive libraries or characters and worlds through the IP they’ve created over decades or acquired, Apple is forging a different path. This approach is focussed on creating TV series and movies that are different from the algorithmically-created, low risk approaches taken by many others.
Whether that approach will be successful will come down to whether Apple persists with TV+ or decides to change tack and focus on revenues rather than art.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.