Apple is late to the TV streaming party, with Amazon, Netflix and Hulu having garnered swathes of faithful users for years. So how will Apple TV+ aim to win some market share? It's going to be a case of quality over quantity, according to Eddy Cue, vice president of internet software and services at Apple.
In a Sunday Times interview, reported by The Verge, Cue said Apple won’t be "creating the most" original content, but it will be "creating the best". In a none-too-thinly-veiled dig at Netflix's strategy, which has seen the service deliver a huge amount of new shows and films, Cue said that there’s "nothing wrong with that model, but it’s not our model."
Instead, Apple will once again aim to raise the bar, in a similar way to how it entered the market with the iPod, iPhone and iPad. As Cue said: "We try to be the best, and we don't have to be the first to be the best." And in fairness, the company has delivered on that promise in the past.
Cue also noted that while Apple doesn't "know a lot about television other than we are big consumers of it", the company knew how to deliver the best service – "find the best people for it".
The company has enlisted heavyweight Hollywood executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, formerly of Sony, as well as Jay Hunt, formerly Channel 4, to head up its Apple TV+ programming. With these seasoned veterans at the helm, Apple has set up an intriguing schedule of shows featuring the likes of J.J. Abrams, Steven Spielberg and Oprah Winfrey.
Apple plans to release new content every month, with the first series to premiere likely to be its workplace drama, The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon. And it fits the Apple TV+ bill, says Cue: "On the quality bar, it is really, really good."
With Apple not planning to produce the same quantity of content as Amazon and Netflix, we’ll have to wait until later in the year to make a judgement on the quality.
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