Apple's effort to conquer the TV space has not been very successful as of yet. For example, Apple's first attempt at original programming with Planet of the Apps was hugely ridiculed by both viewers and critics and the most recent one, the spinoff of the popular Carpool Karaoke segment from the The Late Late Show with James Corden, is also not a promising show.
Undaunted, the tech giant is not prepared to let go off the battlefield without giving it another fight. So, the Cupertino-based company is ready to invest some astronomical amount of money to step up its TV game to compete with the likes of Netflix and HBO. As per a report by The Wall Street Journal, Apple has earmarked $1 billion for developing, acquiring and producing original TV content.
Add to that Tim Cook's tech behemoth has also roped in two former Sony executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg a few months ago to manage this enormous amount of funding. Erlicht and Amburg might not appear to be the household names but they are the ones responsible for bringing hit show like Breaking Bad to the audience. This duo would now wield a wide discretion as to how to spend that $1 billion.
Reportedly, Apple thinks $1 billion is enough to bankroll at least 10 brand new and fresh programmes for TV. And the company is highly ambitious about producing the critically acclaimed and mass favourite HBO TV series Game of Thrones. Apple and Game of Thrones - that would be something to definitely look out for.
Recently it had been rumoured that Apple is planning to kick start its own subscription service, but that initiative did not see the light of the day due to some pricing issues. On Apple's failure of making that big splash on the TV scene, a Business Insider report two months ago had pointed out that some of the Apple's top executives are not very fond of the company's decision to enter the TV landscape. They simply didn't appreciate the new dynamics, making way for the new duo Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg make it onboard.
Now that new blood is infused, we can expect huge splash into TV business by Apple and probably this time the company may take steps in the right direction.
