Apple TV (Photo by Thomas Trutschel/Photothek via Getty Images)
There's been no shortage of articles extolling the market altering possibilities of the existence of Disney+ and its Hulu and ESPN+ bundle. Will it make Netflix obsolete? How will it compete with Apple TV+?
We are about to overdose on streaming services and I don't think we fully realize what's about to happen to our brains and wallets.
When Apple announced Apple TV+ we knew there would be a war coming. A pricing war. A content war. A streaming war. Of course, all wars lead to attrition. We can't possibly subscribe to all the streaming services. There is just too much content. While Netflix is kind of chilling, pumping out original content, Apple is gearing up for a straight up original content battle that has no losers.
First, we finally have pricing information for Apple TV+. It'll be $9.99 at launch. The basic Disney+ subscription is $6.99, while the bundle is $12.99. Netflix's standard plan remains at $12.99. The pricing across the board is competitive and doesn't seem like much of a stretch if you were to subscribe to all the things. We also can't forget about WarnerMedia's HBO Max, which is where Friends will live.
Here's where Apple+ is stepping up its game. The Disney+ library is what it is, Disney owns 20th Century Fox, Lucasfilm and Marvel, so all those properties will easily reside there. Apple owns nothing. So it has to spend some money and according to analysts, is poised to spend more than six billion on original programming and that will be the focus of its launch later this year. Compare that to the $15 billion Netflix is spending this year. We might think the war is between Disney+ and Apple TV+, but it might just be between Apple TV+ original content and Netflix's original content.
Apple TV+ is already coming out of the gate strong with the trailer for The Morning Show starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Steve Carell, Billy Crudup and the selling point for me, Mark Duplass. The point here is that Apple is showing it is not afraid of spending some serious money on original programming and pulling in some Hollywood heavyweights to sell it. It sure beats any initial offerings from ancillary streaming services like YouTube TV or Facebook Watch.
It's going to be hard to choose. There is so much quality content coming out of Netflix (as well as a fair amount of crap) that we'll hesitate to cancel in favor of a new service. Our TV shows like Modern Family, Masterchef and The Orville live on Hulu the day after they air on cable, so are we ready to let that go? All our favorite Marvel movies will live on Disney+ and even WarnerMedia has a library of classics that we often feel we can't live without.
So with Apple entering the streaming arena with a fair priced offering and a hefty investment in original programming, we'll have a choice to make that we won't want to make.
It's like standing in front of the Little Debbie snack cake display at the store. Which one? All of them of course. Zebra Cakes, Star Crunches and those weird peanut butter ones that mom used to put in your lunch. We will have it all. Our lives will become little more than vehicles for media consumption. Our brains will become 90% content.
Which is what Apple TV+ and Disney+ are banking on. They aren't looking to tear us away from Netflix, they are looking for us to also subscribe to their services. Because that's exactly what we are going to do. Either that or torrent the hell out of just the shows we want to watch. The day may come when our monthly streaming bill is comparable with a car payment, and we'll gladly pay it because without content, do we even exist?
