Apple Challenges Netflix, Hulu: Release Of Its Own Original Series On The Horizon
Apple is synonymous with adaptation. If there’s an industry/product that proves to demand a market, the tech giant adapts. Autonomous cars, wearable devices, and now its own original TV project.
According to MacRumors, Apple will be teaming up with Black Eyed Peas front man will.i.am and TV executives Ben Silverman (The Biggest Loser, Marco Polo, Jane the Virgin) and Howard T. Owens (president of National Geographic channels) on a new non-scripted television series that will focus on the ever-growing “app economy.”
Apple is creating an original TV show with https://t.co/dDQ575Iaf5 https://t.co/M9cLOzxT0z pic.twitter.com/bHTIJl0Yeo
— Money (@Money) March 24, 2016
Aside from the concept of the project — a show about apps — no further details have been made available, but during an interview with the New York Times, Apple iTunes chief Eddy Cue pointed out that news of the show is not in any way a sign of what’s to come as far as Apple delivering a constant flow of original series and becoming a part of the streaming market is concerned.
The news settles the flood of rumors that poured in last year that suggested the company was meeting with Hollywood executives to prep for a major push into their own original programming.
“One of the things with the app store that was always great about it was the great ideas that people had to build things and create things,” Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet software and services, said in an interview. […]
“This doesn’t mean that we are going into a huge amount of movie production or TV production or anything like that,”
Mr. Cue acknowledged that the Apple company would continue to explore exclusive projects similar to the series about apps along with its push into music programming.
But despite claims that the company is not interested in expanding into the streaming market, news of Apple backing a “top-secret scripted series” featuring Beats co-founder and hip-hop icon Dr. Dre (also one of Apples executives) has already made its way to the mainland.
The Hollywood Reporter announced back in February that the former NWA member will star and produce his own series titled Vital Signs. The six-episode series will be financially backed by Apple and be distributed via Apple Music — the company’s streaming site — but no official word has been confirmed on whether the series will be made available on other Apple platforms such as Apple TV or the Apple iTunes store.
When the Reporter reached out to Apple and a rep for Dr. Dre for comment on the project, both parties declined to comment, but those who are familiar with the project claimed the genre as semi-autobiographical, with Dre’s character as the focal point as he struggles to deal with a spin cycle of emotional experiences.
Sam Rockwell and Mo McRae are said to be among those cast for the project.
Dre has a previous relationship with Apple; in 2014 the hip-hop pioneer sold his popular Beats Electronics to Apple for $3 billion.
The talk of Apple jumping into original programming is not new for those that follow the company. Since the recent success of Netflix and Amazon, many have wondered when the Silicon Valley titan would begin its own venture in the young industry.
(Photo by Stephen Lam/ Getty Images)
