Open the Apple website and the words “And, we are just getting started” hits the eye. The company is sounding a warning note to its rivals in the fast-growing over-the-top (OTT) media services market. Mind you, it has nothing to do with Apple TV Plus signing on Hollywood’s hotshot director Martin Scorsese.
Apple.com has a completely new look today. Gone are the details of its various top-notch products. Instead what you get to see is a page solely devoted to its fledgling business Apple TV Plus. The home page new features the Apple TV Plus logo in bold with “18 Emmy Nominations” right below it.
The promotion, timed just ahead of this year’s Emmy Awards, scheduled on the 20th of September, concludes with the not-so-subtle message about Apple TV Plus having just gotten started in the OTT business, dominated by the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney HotStar Plus.
As you scroll down the home page, Apple reveals that its original content was what earned them these Emmy nominations. The page lists thumbnails of The Morning Show, which received eight nominations, Defending Jacob (two) and the Beastie Boys Story (five).
And there’s more down below. The website also features other shows that have earned nominations including Central Park, Home, and the Elephant Queen. Of course, there is also a reference to Apple’s biggest catch yet in the form of the Tom Hanks World War-2 saga Greyhound, which saw subscriptions spike by 30%.
It is obvious that the company wants to tom-tom its recent signings that include a multi-year contract with Scorsese, shows with Oprah Winfrey and a new music show featuring Reese Witherspoon, among others.
While Apple had offered customers of Apple TV a year’s free subscription for Apple TV Plus, in India the service is available for Rs.99 per month. Even if you do not have an iPhone or an iPad, the service can be accessed via the browser on a desktop, in case you create an Apple account and pay up. Netflix offers a mobile-only streaming for Rs.199 while Amazon Prime comes at a price of Rs.129. Disney HotStar, which is the most downloaded app in India, costs Rs.299.
A report on Deadline said Apple acquired the rights in a six-way bidding process for Snow Blind, which is an adaptation of the Boom Studios-owned graphic novel written by Ollie Masters and Tyler Jenkins. In fact, Ollie Masters used his Twitter handle to share the big news.
There were reports that Apple Studios had forked out $105 million for securing the rights of Will Smith’s “Emancipation”, the story of a slave who escapes from a plantation in Louisiana and journeys North while escaping from hunters. Directed by Oscar winner Antoine Fuqua of “The Magnificent Seven” fame, the movie is slated for a 2021 release.
Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon” is based on the non-fictional work American journalist David Grann which narrates the story around a series of murders of Osage people of Oklahoma in the 1920s following the discovery of oil deposits. It delves into how the newly formed FBI investigates it under J Edward Hoover. The movie is a collaboration between Apple Plus TV and Paramount Pictures.