Photo illustration: Scott Gelber for Bloomberg Businessweek; Photographer: LiPo Ching/San Francisco Chronicle/Polaris
The One Where Apple Tried to Buy Its Way Into Hollywood
Annual iPhone sales should provide 200 million free trial subscriptions, which could net billions a year in new revenue. The question is whether Apple TV+ can keep users coming back.
In late March, a large delegation of celebrities and their handlers arrived in Cupertino, Calif., like explorers on an exotic island. The group, which included Oprah Winfrey, J.J. Abrams, and Jason Momoa, went to Apple Inc.’s headquarters for the launch of Apple TV+, the tech company’s new subscription video service.
After a series of announcements about subscription news and video game services, plus one about a credit card, Apple’s Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht appeared on stage and promised a lineup of a dozen original shows featuring “the best stories ever told,” as Erlicht put it.