Rumours have been swirling for years now that Apple is eyeing an entry into the competitive original content market in an effort to compete with streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video.
Now, a report stemming from the Wall Street Journal indicates that Apple could have plans to produce as many as 10 television shows in the near future, according to the publication’s sources. The tech giant’s budget for this project is reportedly $1 billion USD, a number that comes to about half the amount Time Warner’s HBO spent on content last year, and approximately the same amount of funds Amazon has put into producing its own original content.
The budget is tipped to be controlled by Hollywood veterans Jamie Erlicht and Zach Van Amburg, who were hired by Apple back in June from Sony in order to to control the company’s still unannounced original content strategy.
Given Apple also offers subscriptions to services like HBO Go (which isn’t officially available in Canada) and Netflix through its App Store, it will be interesting to see how the tech giant balances jeopardizing the 15 percent cut it takes from apps sold on its digital marketplace.
Apple currently produces the critically panned ‘Planet of the Apps’ along with ‘Carpool Karaoke,’ which launched last week.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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