Network USA Connecting Globe: Video streaming, Apple's new bet

Le PDG d'Apple, Tim Cook, prendre lundi soir 18 heures (heure française) dévoiler ambitions groupe streaming vidéo

Will all the Hollywood fan be present in the Steve Jobs Amphitheater this Monday night? According to rumors, Apple has invited Oprah Winfrey, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steven Spielberg to Cupertino for the launch of its video subscription service and a new pay digital kiosk. After creating a music streaming app almost four years ago, the event needs to confirm Apple's shift to services.

According to the American press, the video project is not as ambitious as that of Netflix, the leader in film and series streaming, which has produced about 700 original programs in 2018. The Cupertino giant does not intend to build a very large catalog but produce dozens of "shows" and aggregate the offers of several other pay TV channels. According to Bloomberg, the company could offer access to HBO (Game of Thrones), Showtime (Homeland and Dexter) and Starz (The Girlfriend Experience) programs. Signing the return of so popular channel packages before the advent of streaming services ...

Amazon Channels

Apple relies on "the failure of these chains to build a true model of direct distribution," said Richard Greenfield, analyst at BTIG. With an installed base of 1.4 billion users on iPhone, iPad and Mac, the group sells them access to a large volume of viewers, as well as its talent in building easy-to-use interfaces.

The idea seems to have been inspired by the success of Amazon's "Channels" service. Launched in its premium video subscription in December 2015, it allows you to subscribe to more than 150 channels including HBO and CBS All Access. According to BMO Capital Markets, revenues in this section have more than doubled in one year to $ 1.7 billion in 2018.

But Apple knows that it is mostly exclusives that will bait the users. After debauchering two Sony brands in June 2017 to steer its offensive, the company spent nearly $ 2 billion in 2018 to produce some thirty programs, according to the investment bank BTIG. She has formed a partnership with the host Oprah Winfrey, the director Steven Spielberg, the director Damien Chazelle ("La La Land") and A24, the studio that produced Moonlight, Oscar for best film in 2017.

Disney and WarnerMedia in ambush

However, the effort remains far from the $ 8 billion spent by Netflix in 2018, a budget that is expected to increase by 50% this year. The company will have to find a place in a crowded landscape, where viewers are already navigating between Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Disney and WarnerMedia (formerly Time Warner) are also preparing to launch their offers in the coming months.

The success of the application is crucial for Apple, while the launch of increasingly high-end phones is no longer enough to ensure the same rate of renewal among users. For the first time in ten years, the group saw its turnover and profit drop in its first fiscal quarter.

Revenue from services grew by 24% in 2018, exceeding $ 37 billion, thanks to downloads on the App store, Apple Music listings and its cloud storage offering. Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, now wants to reach 50 billion dollars in 2020.

Digital Store

A great unknown remains. Will he try to revive hardware sales by confining the new offer to its devices? Or will he distribute the services to competitors like Samsung, Roku or Android? The company began to evolve its philosophy last year, allowing Amazon's Alexa speakers to access Apple Music and Samsung TV owners to launch iTunes.

To accelerate services, Apple is also relying on a new digital kiosk. For $ 9.99 a month, iPhone owners will have access to a "premium" tab in its Apple News application, the US press believes. It will give access to the "Wall Street Journal", but not the other two headlines in the US press, the "New York Times" and the "Washington Post", dissatisfied with the revenue sharing proposed by the California giant. The company had prepared the ground by acquiring Texture last year, an application to access dozens of magazines including Condé Nast (Glamor, Vanity Fair) and Hearst (Cosmopolitan, Oprah Magazine) for $ 10 per issue. month.

Le PDG d'Apple, Tim Cook, prendre lundi soir 18 heures (heure française) dévoiler ambitions groupe streaming vidéo