Monarch: Legacy of Monsters is a TV series for my taste. It has both elements of good entertainment – monsters and explosions. You can watch the series, which is a bit silly, because the monster action looks like a movie. The same feeling of cinematography came from the excellent science fiction series Silo. Silo watching it again, I remembered the previous series, which had a really big atmosphere, Foundation based on the works of Isaac Asimov.
Lee Pace and Laura Birn star in the foundation series (Foundation).
All three are Apple productions.
It could be that I'm imagining the whole thing, but Apple's sets feel bravely “movie-like”. And I haven't even watched it yet For All Mankind, the acclaimed alternate history series in which the Russians defeat the Americans in the space race. The same trend seems to continue when Apple TV+ starts at the end of January Masters of the Aira war drama by Band of Brothers the end of the serial trilogy he started. Money is visible in Apple's productions, in a good way.
Why a company that makes billions with shiny phones is now making expensively produced TV series? Because it is the strategy chosen by Apple in the fierce competition of the industry.
Streaming giants like Netflix, HBO, Disney, and Amazon have invested heavily in content. However, few consumers want to pay for five services and the Playoff is underway. Consumers are canceling their subscriptions, movies are not as popular as they used to be, TV series are being produced way too much and advertising sales are down. The aftermath has been ugly and losses in the billions.
According to an analyst interviewed by the Financial Times the industry is in “full panic”. All the big players, from Netflix to Disney, have put the economy gear on. There are more cuts and acquisitions ahead.
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Apple's strategy is more or less the same as on the device side.
No matter how handsome the series are, Apple may be late. Many have already declared Netflix the winner of the streaming war. Netflix would seem to be in the best position as “everyone's channel”, to which competitors have to sell their own content for distribution.
Starring Rebecca Ferguson, Siilo is based on Hugh Howey's Siilo saga book series.
In this race, Apple's strategy is more or less the same as in the device side, which is still the company's main business. The company, known for its silver-colored computers and touchscreen phones, competes on quality, not quantity.
Apple annually spends much less money on its own series and film production than Netflix or Disney. The strategy seems to have succeeded at least in the sense that the ratio between the number of its productions and the demand is many times that of, for example, Netflix.
Quality investment success is also indicated by the symbolic profit taken by Apple, when it distributes Coda won the Oscar for Best Picture as the first streaming film. Apple's biggest success is in TV series Ted Lasso, which is one of the most awarded comedy series of all time. It's like for Apple The Crown and Stranger Things For Netflix or Game of Thrones and Succession For HBO.
The difference to Netflix and HBO can already be seen in these lists. Apple has only one giant series, competitors have several. Apple would need more content so that consumers could afford to pay for the service month after month.
Our own content selection is expanded, especially through business acquisitions. The continental plates of the industry moved when Amazon bought the traditional movie studio MGM. An even greater earthquake would be, if the speculated acquisition were to materialize and Apple would actually buy Disney. After that, princesses, marvels and starwars would live in the apple store.
The foundation is a visually spectacular science story.
Apple has made bold moves. Money buys not only quality, but also names. Apple has a first purchase agreement by Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio with companies. Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, Apple's film, is one of the most acclaimed films of the last year and is in contention for the Best Picture Oscar. The film appeared at the Cannes Film Festival in May, had its theatrical premiere in the fall and is now available to watch on Apple's service. Scorsese's previous film of The Irishman published by Netflix. Apple also produced another Hollywood veteran, by Ridley Scottthe new movie Napoleon.
Big names can also be found appearing at the end of this month Masters of the Air from behind. The series is about American pilots who bomb Germany during World War II. It's a spiritual sequel to HBO's hit series For Band of Brothers and to its successor For The Pacific.
by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks the production companies started working on the series with HBO as early as 2013, but it will eventually be published by Apple. The reason for the change of studio and publisher might be the very high price. Estimates of the series' budget range between $200 and $250 million, which would make it one of the most expensive TV series of all time in terms of episode prices.
Of money that's what it's all about in the end. TV series are huge investments. Their revenue in streaming is not measurable in the same way as tickets bought for movies, ads sold or licensing fees. What is to be evaluated is mainly the undulating movement of subscribers.
Money still matters, but with an equation that is just taking shape. At the moment, it mostly looks like an expensive gamble. It is difficult to predict the twists and turns of the industry. Two or three years ago, many predicted the decline of Netflix. Now it is already celebrated as a winner.
However, the streaming war is moving to the next stage. It includes advertisements. They bring a more reliable income than unreliable customer scammers who churn out hit series, cancel their subscriptions every month and lend their IDs to their friends and children.
You probably won't see ads on Apple's TV service. Apple is also not going to challenge Netflix for market leadership. A certain share of the market and a place on the screens of its phones is probably enough for the company. The company that sells outrageously expensive iPhones knows that people will pay if the product is good.
That's why Apple pays for quality and trusts that when an iPhone user finds enough Scorsese, Spielberg and cool monsters behind the TV icon on their phone, they'll be ready to pay.
And wait for more Silo, Foundation and Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
In the Monarch: Legacy of Monsters series, a lot has been invested in visual effects.
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