Apple TV Service Event Will Only Matter To You In One Way
A bit of a leak of Apple's next event showed the content of the announcements the company's about to make. Apple's got some entertainment on-hand in the TV department. They're apparently set to deliver a new service in which they sell subscriptions to services that already sell subscriptions. The biggest differences for you will be in price and in availability – sort of.
According to a report released today, the biggest change on Apple's side of the equation is a very significant detail. Before now, Apple's model had users viewing streams hosted by 3rd-party streaming services. This new model will have Apple serving the streams.
When Apple serves the streaming content, they'll have "primary access" to user viewing data. If you're the sort of person who doesn't care if your viewing and purchase habits are being studied by 3rd-party companies with the devices and services you use every day, this shouldn't matter to you one bit. If you'd like to know who's doing the studying, you'll now know: it will be Apple.
The big deal for users isn't the way you'll pay for access to streaming video services – even though it'll be through Apple instead of through the services themselves. The big deal is in how Apple prices and sells these subscriptions. According to the report from Recode today, Apple will "sell bundles of pay TV channels at a discount, just like pay TV operators have always done."
Hopefully Apple's model does not make the same mistakes of the TV channel bundles of olde. Hopefully Apple's bundles do not mean users will need to pay for a whole bundle in order to access the one bit of content they're after. but we shall see. Amazon already does something very, very similar with its own content streaming service platform Amazon Prime Video Channels.
Now, you might be wondering – why would Apple host a press event just to talk about an Apple TV app and host service rather than just send out a press release? The answer probably has to do with star power. Apple probably ALSO has some interesting new content they want to show off in addition to this new model – so again, we shall see!
This March 25th, 2019 Apple Event is apparently going to be star-studded, in some way or the other. Don't be shocked if this event also plays host to a new news subscription service from Apple, too.