Apple is re-evaluating its spending on original content for Apple TV+, having reportedly invested around $20 billion on shows and movies, many of which have gone unnoticed by audiences.
According to Bloomberg, Apple executive Eddy Cue has been in discussions with the platform’s studio leaders, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, to cut back on production budgets. The studio heads have expressed a desire to improve the service’s reputation, which has been labeled as the industry’s largest spender.
Apple has made significant financial commitments, such as the $250 million invested in the miniseries “Masters of Air,” which struggled to gain traction upon release. Additionally, the company has spent over $500 million on films from well-known directors like Martin Scorsese, Ridley Scott, and Matthew Vaughn.
Despite these expenditures, Apple TV+ holds a mere 0.2% share of US television viewership, attracting significantly fewer viewers in a month than Netflix does in just one day. The platform has also faced challenges in boosting subscriber numbers.
While the issues facing Apple TV+ have not raised alarm bells within the tech giant—since streaming is not a primary focus of its business strategy—the era of unrestricted spending appears to be coming to an end. Evidence of this shift can be seen in the company’s hesitance to renew shows for third seasons, as indicated by Bloomberg data.
Currently, Apple TV+ is the only major streaming service that does not offer an ad-supported tier, a situation likely to change following the hiring of Joseph Cady, a former advertising executive from NBCUniversal, earlier this year.