Winfrey, Spielberg, Aniston, Witherspoon, Spencer, Abrams, Momoa, Shyamalan, Jon M. Chu are all coming – to Apple TV+.
Yesterday, the Cupertino giant revealed the name of their new subscription service which will become the new home for the world’s most creative storytellers featuring exclusive original shows, movies and documentaries, coming this fall.
Apple TV+ will feature a brand new slate of programming from the world’s most celebrated creative artists and more beginning this May.
“We’re honored that the absolute best lineup of storytellers in the world — both in front of and behind the camera — are coming to Apple TV+,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services. “We’re thrilled to give viewers a sneak peek of Apple TV+ and cannot wait for them to tune in starting this fall. Apple TV+ will be home to some of the highest quality original storytelling that TV and movie lovers have seen yet.”
The new Apple TV app will personalize what viewers love to watch across their existing apps and services while developing a secure and comprehensive understanding of users’ viewing interests.
The app will offer suggestions for shows and movies from over 150 streaming apps, including Amazon Prime and Hulu, as well as pay-TV services such as Canal+, Charter Spectrum, DIRECTV NOW and PlayStation Vue. Optimum and Suddenlink from Altice will be added later this year.
Additionally, the Apple TV app will become the new home to the hundreds of thousands of movies and TV shows currently available for purchase or rent in the iTunes Store.
Yesterday, Deadline published a list of titles and synopses that will appear on the new channel.
Truth Be Told: The thriller drama series starring Octavia Spencer and Lizzy Caplan had been known as Are You Sleeping. From Chernin Entertainment/Endeavor Content and Reese Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine, the series is created and written by Nichelle Tramble Spellman and based on Kathleen Barber’s true-crime novel and offers a glimpse into America’s obsession with true-crime podcasts.
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Spencer stars as Poppy Parnell, a relentless investigative reporter who looks to uncover the truth behind a decades-old questionable murder verdict through her new podcast. Aaron Paul, Elizabeth Perkins, Mekhi Phifer, Michael Beach, Katherine LaNasa, Tracie Thoms, Haneefah Wood and Ron Cephas Jones co-star.
Home Before Dark: That’s the title of the 10-episode mystery drama inspired by the real-life story of 11-year-old Hilde Lysiak. It follows a young girl (Brooklynn Prince) who moves from Brooklyn to the small lakeside town her father (Jim Sturgess) left behind. While there, her dogged pursuit of the truth leads her to unearth a cold case that everyone in town, including her own father, tried hard to bury.
The series from Anonymous Content and Paramount Television was created by Ben and Kate creator Dana Fox and Dara Resnik. John M. Chu will direct and executive produce.
Mythic Quest: Rob McElhenney and Charlie Day’s half-hour scripted comedy series starring McElhenney who plays the creative director at a video game development studio. The Lionsgate/3 Arts Entertainment/Ubisoft venture co-stars F. Murray Abraham, Imani Hakim, David Hornsby, Danny Pudi, Ashly Burch, Charlotte Nicdao and Jessie Ennis.
Servant: M. Night Shyamalan and British TV writer Tony Basgallop team for what had been known only as an untitled psychological thriller. Lauren Ambrose, Nell Tiger and Rupert Grint star. Not much has been made known about this series, but it follows parents Dorothy (Ambrose) and Sean Turner, who have hired young nanny Leanne to help care for their newborn child.
Here is the sizzle reel Apple presented:
It was created by Basgallop, who wrote and is executive producer. Shyamalan is executive producing and will direct the first episode.
This all comes at a critical juncture in the fight between cable, satellite and streaming.
According to a new report by the Motion Picture Association of America, online video subscriptions surpassed the number of cable customers in 2018.
The MPAA’s report says there were 613.3 million online video service subscriptions as of last year, a 27 percent increase from 2017. Those 131.2 million new customers helped video streaming services exceed cable’s 556 million subscribers for the very first time.
Also assisting video subscription services in surpassing cable: cord cutters. Cable’s overall customer base fell 2 percent in 2018, according to the MPAA report.
The new Apple TV services put Apple in direct competition of other established players like Hulu, Netflix and Amazon. Disney, AT&T and NBCUniversal all plan to release their own streaming services either this year or early next year. WB is also rumored to be thinking of their own streaming network as well.
One area where cable is still far ahead of video streaming, however, is revenue. Even despite the decrease in subscriptions thanks to cord cutting, cable still saw a revenue increase of $6.2 billion from the year before.
According to the MPAA, cable subscriptions brought in a total of $118 billion in revenue in 2018. Subscriptions to online streaming service accounted for just under $40 billion in revenue last year.
Source: Apple
