CCS Insight is predicting that Apple will introduce a Netflix competitor next year, according to Investopedia. The UK market research firm thinks the tech giant will enter the market in a big way next year, launching a streaming video service that will be home “to a slew of original content.”
“Everyone is jostling for position and everyone is jumping in on the area of video. When you look at Apple, it has a very strong hardware offering and their services business is on the march,” Paolo Pescatore, vice president of multiplay and media at CCS Insight, said. “The real battleground is in the area of original content, but original content would feature prominently and Apple would be very well placed to do that.”
According to CCS Insights, launching a video streaming service could be a way for Apple to increase its revenue from services, which was up 34% in its September quarter and came in at $8.5 billion.
Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon’s dramatic series exploring the behind-the-scenes action of daily morning shows and its players, has been ordered to series by Apple for two seasons. Witherspoon and Aniston will both star in and executive-produce the untitled project.
Apple is also planning a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Amazing Stories as one of its first series in its foray into original programming under Jamie Erlicht & Zack Van Amburg, heads of the newly formed worldwide video programming division. Created by Spielberg, Amazing Stories was a fantasy, horror, and science fiction television anthology series featuring an all-star roster of guest stars that originally ran on NBC from 1985 to 1987. The series was nominated for 12 Emmy Awards and won five.
Apple has set a budget of roughly $1 billion to procure and produce original content over the next year, according to the Wall Street Journal, and could acquire and produce as many as 10 television shows. The $1 billion budget will be in the hands of Hollywood veterans Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, two former TV execs who joined the company in June newly created positions overseeing all aspects of video programming. They join Apple from Sony Pictures Television.
