With the huge popularity of original content on Netflix and Amazon, Apple wants a piece of the pie. That’s according to a new report from the Wall Street Journal which claims Apple is poised to make a play with all-original shows and movies which would be available via the Apple Music service for a monthly subscription fee of $10.
The report says Apple has been shopping around for original content and has been in talks with producers to purchase the rights to a number of episodic shows. Apple has also reportedly been getting advice from — and could potentially poach — television marketing professionals from various other companies to help jumpstart the efforts. Apple has set a timeline for the new content plan and wants to offer scripted shows by the end of the year.
Apple’s programming efforts will allegedly start rather modestly, with only a handful of shows and/or movies, and as such it would not necessarily strike fear in the hearts of its larger competitors. However, Apple’s plan is apparently to produce shows along the same lines as those offered by Netflix and Amazon — think House of Cards or Transparent.
Apple has been dabbling a bit in original content recently, with documentaries on Apple Music and even a standalone version of The Late Late Show‘s Carpool Karaoke. However, according to the report, the shows Apple is currently eying don’t have any link to music as its current video product does, and would instead be positioned as an added value to the Apple Music service — perhaps in the same way Prime Video is a bonus to Amazon’s Prime membership.
