Every few months new speculation emerges regarding Apple’s all-in-one streaming app ambitions, with the company reportedly aiming to revolutionize the video streaming in the same way it fundamentally shifted the music industry.
While Apple already sells HBO, Showtime and Starz subscriptions individually via its App Store, netting the company a 30 percent cut of each subscription, the Cupertino, California-based tech giant wants to bundle all of these services together under one umbrella, allowing it to sell the content as a standalone product.
A few months ago Apple publicly stated that it’s no longer pursuing the bundling cable television channels into one package, because, according to head of media at Apple, Eddy Cue, the company was not willing to make concessions regarding the platform’s quality.
Unfortunately however, if this still unannounced bundle does come to fruition, it’s likely that HBO won’t be included in it in Canada given the fact that Bell still holds the exclusive Canadian rights for HBO content. Much of Showtime’s content can also be found on Bell-owned streaming platform CraveTV.
Because of this HBO Now, the company’s standalone streaming app, is still not available in Canada and won’t be at any point in the near future. Starz on the other hand once held a contract with now defunct Canadian streaming platform Shomi, though it’s likely by now that the company’s content is once again up for grabs in Canada.
With all this in mind, it’s more than likely that if Apple does launch this all-in-one premium streaming platform, bringing the service to Canada would prove very difficult. Google recently announced its own entry into the streaming video content game with YouTube TV, though it’s unclear when the platform will launch or if it will make its way to Canada at some point.
Source: Recode
