From The Ankler:

The Creative Team: 'Respectful', 'Honest', 'Excellent'

Apple TV+ has been known for its deep pockets and deeper affinity for A-list names and major talent — and its limited marketing efforts and relatively small audience vs. other streamers in town. While it’s not a volume player the way Netflix is, Apple has been “a pretty stable buyer over the last five years,” the first agent tells me, and says Apple has indicated an openness to original ideas although it is happy to entertain concepts based on books and other IP, like the recently released Alfonso Cuarón miniseries Disclaimer, starring Cate Blanchett, which is based on the novel by Renee Knight. (Word is Apple TV+ is really excited about this one and expects it to do well.)

In general, buyers at all networks and streamers like “the big IP packages,” this person continues. “I think it’s the thing that is least likely to get you fired as an executive, if you can point to it and be like, ‘But it has a massive audience!’”

Of the creative executive team at Apple TV+, agents and producers generally find them to be agreeable, consistent and collaborative.

They’re “very respectful of the writers, the writing process,” says a second agent from a different firm. “I’m a big fan of theirs, I really am. I’ve never had an issue with them in terms of promising something that they didn’t deliver on. What I appreciate is honesty, and I think that if I come to them with something, they will say, ‘I don’t think that’s for us,’ and they’re not going to waste time. And I appreciate that. We don’t have time to waste.”

Matt Cherniss, the former president of WGN America who joined Apple in 2017, leads development and programming, reporting up to Apple TV+ heads and Sony Pictures TV alums Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht. Together, the trio are responsible for all greenlight decisions, with the buck stopping at Zack and Jamie, as the pair is known around town. (This may seem to be a simple and obvious statement, but at other companies with more complicated structures, the answer to “Who has the final word around here?” is sometimes the equivalent of the shrug emoji.)

The entire executive team is “excellent,” to hear a third agent tell it. “They’re excellent with talent. They’re excellent in seeking out the voices and creators that they want to work with.”

Apple TV+ Is All Grown Up, But Not Too Grown Up

The Apple TV+ audience, according to the agents who spoke with me, are generally millennial (and older), coastal — and more affluent. While there is children’s programming on the service, the streamer is said to be far less interested in young adult series than some of its direct-to-consumer counterparts, like Netflix.

Even so, there’s still a wariness about being too adult with its adult audience. Sex remains a “nonstarter,” says the first agent. There may be a lot of sci-fi on Apple TV+, but don’t bring your sexy, gory dragon show idea to them. No cigarettes either, I’m told. “There’s some packages that may be better suited for other buyers because of that,” this person says. Adds the third agent: “I don’t know that you’re going to find the super gritty. We haven’t yet seen Apple’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.”

But this could be evolving a little bit. Disclaimer is “more adult” than what we’re used to seeing on the streamer, notes the first agent, who adds “I think maybe they’re going to get more provocative. Not HBO level, [but] a little bit more open, depending on the creative.”

'Feel-Something' Comedies

Another thing that remains consistent: “Budgets are still fairly generous,” a fourth agent tells me. “They make less, they buy less, but when they do, the deals haven’t changed in the same way that it feels like other places have pulled back.”

On the comedy side, I’m told the company isn’t overly picky about what backdrop or kind of show it wants.

“There isn’t always that specificity of ‘we need a sci-fi comedy,’ or ‘we need X, Y and Z,’” says the third agent. “It’s more about ‘we need something funny,’ or ‘we need something uplifting, and we need to have it anchored by a star,’ and ‘we want to work with experienced showrunners.’ Then we let the creatives bring their own genre or feeling of comedy to it, but I don’t find that Apple has ever been that prescriptive when it comes to their comedy mandates.”

Ted Lasso is the comedy that helped put Apple TV+ on the map several years ago. “There hasn’t really been anything that has been as immediately effective to their audience” since then, says the second agent.

The streamer isn’t necessarily looking for simple laugh-out-loud shows. Loot, Shrinking and Bad Monkey — “these are shows that have a lot of humor to them but are not really comedies, and have something to say,” this person continues. “I think that’s really the key for Apple, is that there’s a message that you come away with after you watch it. It’s not just a ‘Hey, I watched an episode and laughed.’ You come away from Loot saying, ‘Okay, these people are trying to do good.’ You come away from Shrinking going, ‘These people really care about each other and they are legitimately in each other’s lives.’ So I do think that a lot of what they’re doing at Apple is — not feel-good, but certainly feel-something when you walk away from watching.”

Limited Drama, 'Grounded' Sci-Fi

On the drama side, The Morning Show has apparently proven popular enough with viewers to merit three seasons and four Emmy wins so far. Still, the Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon soap is an “outlier to what they’re looking for now,” continues the second agent.

Instead, Apple TV+ is said to be rather interested in limited series, quite the opposite of what’s in vogue right now on the street.

The streamer has distributed a number of limited series, like Presumed Innocent and Brie Larson starrer Lessons in Chemistry. “If you went in [to pitch Apple] with The Morning Show right now, would you get a pickup? Yeah, you probably would, especially with those stars attached. But I think that they are really concentrating on more limited dramatic series.”

Apple TV+ has invested pretty heavily into sci-fi over the years: think Severance, For All Mankind, See, Dark Matter, Silo and Foundation.

“I do think that they feel they index too strongly into [sci-fi], especially the world-building sci-fi,” says the fourth agent. “They’re saying they feel covered in that space right now. They would do grounded sci-fi. So they would do something more like Ex Machina than Foundation.”

Star-Crossed

“Overall, you think of Apple and you think of big movie stars and high-end and glossy,” says the second agent. Indeed, go to its homepage right now and you’ll see Gary Oldman’s Slow Horses, Natalie Portman’s Lady in the Lake and Jake Gyllenhaal’s Presumed Innocent on the drama side, and comedies starring Vince Vaughn (Bad Monkey) and Harrison Ford (Shrinking).

As a result, Apple TV+ has developed a reputation for being “starfuckers,” to hear some tell it — as in, only bring us your A-list actors and directors, please.

But more than one person tells me that the platform is looking to open things up a bit.

“It doesn’t have to have that Oscar winner attached,” says the first agent. “But they have to see the potential for a big talent.”

This is true particularly as pre-attaching marquee names can sometimes work against a sales pitch. “I will say that one of the things that is both a positive and a negative in our business right now is: It used to be that actor attachments were a way to actually get you closer to a pickup of a show,” says the second agent. “The truth is that it doesn't matter. [Studios and networks] can get anybody they want. They feel as though — which, as a literary agent, I'm gratified by — the material is what is going to attract the actor. The truth is, if you walk in with an actor, you actually are risking a scenario where Apple TV+ or any network looks at it and goes, ‘We love this, but we don’t want that actor in it, because we don’t see that actor as the right person.’”

Befitting Apple TV+ finally getting a project on air from Cuarón after signing him five years ago even before its streaming service launched, several agents note Apple’s desire to have top-notch directors at the helm, even if they aren’t household names. “What I’ve been finding,” says the fourth agent, “is there are projects that they’re like, ‘We really like this, but we need to find the voice of a filmmaker to do it.’”

So building big packages with shiny names can work to a seller’s detriment. Unless, of course, it’s an “undeniable” actor, says the second agent. (I can practically see some of your eyes rolling at the word.) “That’s a different scenario, if it’s George Clooney.”

Even so, “if you have the right material, you can go out and get George Clooney.” (Of course, even Clooney wasn’t ultimately able to secure a theatrical release from Apple TV+ for Wolfs.)

There is one last thing to note about the company: The door is open, but it’s hard to get in.

Overall, “I think that they are continuing to look at material at a very high level,” continues the second agent. “They are also passing on material at a very high level. Big names are going in there and are being passed on, to the surprise, obviously, of the people putting it together. But I do think that their mandate, in general, is still to appeal to a broad swath of Apple’s audience.”

https://theankler.com/p/what-apple-tv-wants-to-buy-now?triedRedirect=true

There’s an interesting article from Parrot Analytics about the effects of new and returning shows on streaming. I’ve captured the highlights about Apple TV+ for discussion.

All digital originals share the same goal of contributing to a popular streaming service that is acquiring new subscribers and retaining existing customers. Widely embraced original television series are the primary tools with which to do this. Yet is there a difference between new shows vs returning series when it comes to this mission? If so, what are the specific value contributions of each? How can companies optimize their content catalogs to build the best service and win the Super Bowl of streaming? 

How many shows are being made?

The raw number of new Season 1 platform originals by premiere year have largely decreased or slowed since 2020. Netflix still leads the pack by a wide margin while HBO and Max, when counted together, have entered the same tier as Amazon. These services tend to release the greatest supply of new originals. As standalone services, Disney+, Hulu, HBO, Max, Apple TV+, Paramount+ and Peacock are far less voluminous. This is important because specific value can also be dependent on the prevalence and saturation of a given title and/or platform, which we’ll explore later. 

Put another way, here are the average annual year-over-year changes in new Season 1 platform originals from 2020-Aug. 31, 2024 as the major streaming powers rein in spending:

• Max (-53%)
• Apple TV+ (-37%)
• Peacock (-33%)
• Netflix (-28%)
• Disney+ (-22%)
• Hulu (-17%)
• Amazon Prime Video (-7%)
• Paramount+ (+ 16%)

Here is the average annual percentage of top 20 most in-demand platform originals that are new releases (first seasons) from 2020-Aug. 31, 2024 by service:

• Apple TV+ (37%)
• Hulu (32%)
• HBO Max (31%)
• Disney+ (29%)
• Paramount+ (28%)
• Amazon (21%)
• Netflix (11%)

First, the supply of new releases, or first season originals, is slowing. Second, these freshman originals then comprise a much smaller percentage of the top 20 most in-demand originals on each platform compared to returning original series. What’s more - new original’s share of the top 20 is largely decreasing over the last four years. In other words, returning hit original series are commanding more audience demand than new original hit series. 

Okay, but how does viewership and engagement translate to subscriber growth? 

For smaller services such as Apple TV+, returning hits like Ted Lasso can provide bigger subscriber boosts over subsequent seasons until the show reaches saturation. Over the show’s three seasons (so far), Apple TV+ added the most UCAN net additions in the first two quarters of Season 2’s availability compared to the first two quarters of Season 1 and 3. For each season, the second quarter of availability also saw an improvement in churn rate from the previous quarter. The weekly release of the immensely popular title helped sustain demand and lead to better retention. 

The number of new streaming originals is decreasing due to factors like production shutdowns and budget constraints. With fewer streaming originals hitting the market, the success of those that do see the light of day becomes more vital to the success of a platform. Popular series, both new and returning, help drive subscriber growth and retention. However, the impact a hit original series can have on subscriber growth and retention can vary depending on the size of the platform’s library and customer base. The value of a title can be influenced by its prevalence on a platform and the overall saturation of the service.

Hit new series can help elicit more sustained engagement across their first seasons regardless of streamer. They can also help grow market share for smaller services looking to add new customers. Successful multi-season returning series often have a more consistent impact on subscriber growth and retention over the long-term, though are at the mercy of overarching industry factors. Nurturing and investing in breakout originals has become key to maximizing their long-term value. This is why shows originally designed as limited series — such as Big Little Lies, Shogun, The White Lotus and others — have recently been extended for multi-season runs. 

Full report: https://www.parrotanalytics.com/parrot-perspective/new-vs-original-streaming-originals-value-netflix/

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Good shit apple now just do this for the rest of your shows and you may have a stable platform

This information belongs to one of the Apple TV+ fan profiles (@TVPlusUpdates) on X (Twitter).

What are you most excited for?

https://archive.is/fMii0

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In about a month Apple TV+ turns 5 years old. How do you think/feel/know how the service is doing for you and for Apple and the industry itself?

My personal experience is that now it has enough content to satisfy a wide range of viewers. But still I don't know many people who are subscribed to the service or care about it except for maybe e few big shows. Also the recent change in strategy for movie releases and type of movies indicate to me that Apple itself expected different results ai this 5 year mark. What about you?