Eh, tastes vary, but for me? Some, but not much. More to the point (again, for me) is that there wasn’t a lot of “OK, not must-see, but let’s check it out” content either.
I only have a couple months worth of experience with it (I caught the tail end of a free subscription period that I activated and then pretty much forgot about), but after Ted Lasso and Foundation, there wasn’t much I was interested in.
On the plus side, it’s super easy to pick up and drop, so I’ll happily subscribe for another month when something gets my attention.
For All Mankind is a slow burn but is really good.
Afterparty is a great, funny whodunnit
Dickenson is carried along by Hailee Steinfeld
The Long Way Up is Ewan McGregor, motorcycles and South America
People like Mythic Quest and Servant. I’m interested in the upcoming show Pachinko. Severance is an interesting concept but I haven’t watched enough to see if it’s good or not.
And the fact that Courteous mentioned it’s easy to drop, also nice. We’ve done the same with a few of the other services. The problem is knowing when to stop/start.
With The Afterparty, Severance, Pachinko, and Slow Horses as shows (not to mention having the best picture with CODA) I think Apple has been really delivering the past few months.
I think so too but I hated that it’s only a thin veneer of content. Underneath they tack on full price pay for view movies, and unlike Amazon, we’ve yet to see any discounted, nor a ton of older content of an kind to watch.
Don’t get me wrong, if they continue to build their own content in this wall it will -slowly- pay out. But without someone else’s content at a free price point, they will continue to be an “also good” channel. Once you’re outside of those few shows and movie, why do you turn to Apple TV? They could easily work a deal with another big publisher but we’re in the, “time of fractured streaming,” right now and it will be hard and costly to carry stuff from others without raising their price point quite a bit. In my opinion, it’s the dearth of content as to why they are only $4.99 a month.
IMO, Apple TV+’s content ambition is sapped by the Apple One bundle. TV and Arcade only need to be worth $1-3/month to get users to spring for the $15-20/mo bundle instead of just paying $10-15/mo for Apple Music. Since Apple’s user base is gigantic, their market size is fine if they don’t go for dedicated Windows+Android users. Getting any of those people to pay $5/month for more than part of the year is gravy for them.
I really like that Apple TV+ is only original content. It’s a discounted price per month from every other service, and their originals are top tier content a lot of the time. @Skipper technically all of that other stuff isn’t part of Apple TV+ - it’s nothing to do with the subscription.
I’m very happy with a service that just provides me awesome stuff I can’t get anywhere else. I don’t need the rotating kitchen sink of old movie content along with it.
Noted, but again, it’s a streaming service. So beyond those shows and from what I could see just CODA being free, they still need some content in my opinion, maybe something akin to what you’re saying, rotating old movie content.
Hell, for that matter it would be great if they made an investment along those lines for old content. Apple is flush with cash.
I don’t really understand how you’re framing this. “Yes, they have good shows, and yes it’s cheap so maybe it’s worth it for those, but why isn’t it also a different thing?”
If it’s a matter of principle for you personally that you only subscribe to X different content services in total, then sure, I guess you could have a little angst over having to choose between the specific content that appeals to you on Apple TV+ and a broader catalog of new and old content on another service. But if that’s not the problem, then just subscribe to Apple TV+ and watch their shows and then stop subscribing when you don’t want to watch anymore.
The Apple TV+ content isn’t a “thin veneer” over something else, it’s what you’re subscribing for. If it’s not worth your $5/month, that’s fine, but I think you’re trying to solve a problem with the service you invented.
Apologies. I’m not trying to solve anything here just establish why I’d want to continue to pay for the services once I catch up on the 2-3 shows we’re enjoying right now. We’ve seen Coda, we’re caught up on Severance and Ted Lasso (the latter starts again in Summer from what I understand,) but some of the other shows haven’t stuck as well. We’ll try Afterparty this weekend.
But, this is all within the same month I signed up. If we cancel, Apple will make a whopping $4.99 on us.
To be clear: I just hope for the future of the shows we do like, there will be more there for them to get a return on their investments. I think their current content is great and hope to see more. I just wish there were more of it. Netflix is/was in a similar position, but they still had content from other providers then and now as they transition to Netflix backed movies and shows.
EDIT: Also I sound like that argumentative friend who just naysays on any new good thing. Apologies for that. I’m not really that much of a Debbie Downer in real life, I promise.
For me, the weakness in ATV+ isn’t from lack of a back catalog, at all—I really prefer originals from any service, outside of a couple classics (e.g., I am going to watch some Hill Street Blues this year and will be glad for the service that carries it, but I’m not going to be upset that every service doesn’t have Hill Street Blues.)
It’s because the number of originals they are producing is low enough that they need a high percentage of them to be something I want to see. Below a certain quantity it’s an almost impossible task. HBO Max, on the other hand, is guaranteed to have something new I’ll like at least once a month and sometimes they have 3-4 things going that I want to watch, which is all I have time for. If Apple produced enough to have, say, two shots a week at making something good for me, instead of one, I’d find it much more valuable to keep around indefinitely.
As I said earlier, I think that the quantity falling below that critical threshold is due to low pressure to perform due to the Apple services bundle strategy.
Definitely not meaning to say no one else can like ATV+, too—I totally get that some people are going to be closer fits to what they’re making. I’m 100% not knocking the quality, just ruminating on how my subjective taste lines up with their relatively small catalog.
I feel that way about Disney+. Okay, you’re doing one series at a time I care about, why would I subscribe to you on an ongoing basis? Obviously the calculus is different for people who care about their back catalog (not me) or who have kids who’ll obsessively rewatch the library of kids’ movies. But honestly, I’m okay with some channels being something you dip into occasionally for a binge of the good stuff, especially when they’re priced accordingly. It’s a lot friendlier than feeling like I need to have 18 different services going at all times. I don’t need everything to be a Netflix or HBO Max where there’s constantly new stuff I want to watch and a lengthy backlog to boot.
Speaking of which, I think Apple’s hitting a point where I should dip in shortly.
Nah, it didn’t sound argumentative, and I think I better understand what you’re saying now. I appreciate the response, I was also worried my previous post was going to sound argumentative. 😁
My speculation is that Apple isn’t really interested in negotiating for a back catalog from other partners because of a combination of a) Apple hates relying on partners in general, and b) they think compelling original content is a better use of their resources. All the other services are already fighting and bidding over which existing shows they can keep. Seinfeld, Friends, NBC sitcoms, they all come with a high price tag of their own, or they’re being pulled out of the “who would like to pay us to show this content?” market and pulled into “We own this so we’re using it to strengthen/launch our own platform exclusively” game. And whatever you can snatch up for your own service, you’re still going to have to renegotiate again in a few years.
It seems really late to jump into that war for any new service. It’s going to be original content or bust, so they’re pursing that exclusively. That’s my theory.
I agree with you, but ATV+ also costs about 1/4 what HBO does. Cost is a factor in how I price these things. I have to give up one Starbucks latte a month to afford ATV+. NBD.
Disney+ and AppleTV+ are very much sub for a month and ignore it for a year services for me. Nothing wrong with that, I’d rather have that than be subbing to five different things all year round.
Excellent way to look at it and thanks for that viewpoint. I should adopt that principle, I’m fast falling in to a bunch of things subscribed that we never watch again.
Also, yes, dip in for Severance at some point, it’s excellent!
I think that’s probably exactly where they are at. Since most of us are also fawning over what they HAVE made, I think it’s a good effort and if they keep it going, will become much more popular. Understand I’m also not a huge Apple (the company) loving person, so for me to jump on board with Apple TV+ was a big deal, and the same can be said for my wife.
All of these splintered services like you mentioned also make me wonder where we are at in 10 years.
Should really be in the movies topic but we don’t have a thread for this sort of thing, so I thought I’d recommend Fireball, Werner Herzog’s meteorite documentary. It’s not new, but for whatever reason I didn’t watch it during my free trial period and have now. It’s not top tier Herzog, but I think it was better than his volcano one, and there’s some truly stunning imagery - of the craters (I’m desperately trying to find a comparable Wolfe Creek image for my new desktop wallpaper), of the meteorites, especially the micrometeorites magnified 3,000x, and of Antarctica (obviously we know how well he can shoot that locale).
We finished this over the weekend. I loved it. I know its entire basis was comedic, but I still turned to my wife and said, “fuck Death on the Nile. I’d take 3 seasons of this if it’s a different case each time.”
What was the horror movie on Apple TV+ that @tomchick was raving about a few months back. I thought it was Calls but that seems to be a TV show not a movie.
