Apple TV+ looks to rein in production budgets after years of losses
After spending more than $20 billion to produce original TV shows and movies – many of which reap much hardware during awards seasons, but also which relatively few have seen – Apple is reportedly starting to rein in production budgets.
Lucas Shaw for Bloomberg News:
Based on interviews with more than a dozen people, including former employees, current employees and business partners, Apple services boss Eddy Cue has been having regular meetings with studio chiefs Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht to go over budgets, pushing them to exert more control over spending on projects. Van Amburg and Erlicht have told some of their top creative partners that they want to change their reputation as the biggest spender in town, according to these people.
The studio spent more than $500 million combined on movies from directors Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott and Matthew Vaughn, and upward of $250 million on the World War II miniseries Masters of the Air, one of more than a dozen new series released this year.
Those pictures were all disappointments at the box office, and only Killers of the Flower Moon registered in Nielsen’s rankings of the most-popular streaming titles. Masters of the Air delivered a smaller US audience than House of Ninjas, a Netflix show in Japanese, according to Nielsen. Even so, it’s the only new Apple show this year to appear in Nielsen’s rankings.
Apple is spending billions of dollars a year on original programming that has received strong reviews and many awards nominations. But its streaming service is attracting just 0.2% of TV viewing in the US. Apple TV+ generates less viewing in one month than Netflix does in one day.
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MacDailyNews Take: Apple TV+ gets tremendous bang for its buck and will continue doing so. If the company ever gets around to launching its as-supported tier that our little birdie keeps chirping about, Apple TV+ will finally see significant growth and the quality content offered by Apple TV+ will be widely seen. Apple can finance Apple TV+, even increasing spending above current levels, basically forever.
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