I know you probably have plans in November (Thanksgiving, family time, early holiday shopping) but you’re going to want to set aside some time to lounge on the couch watching TV because Disney and now Apple are going head-to-head that month. It’s going to be a bloodbath.
Apple just announced that its streaming service, AppleTV+, will launch on November 1st. That’s a few days before the launch of Disney+ on the 12th. AppleTV+ also undercuts Disney by setting a subscription price of $4.99 a month, a couple bucks cheaper than Disney+. Whew, that’s pretty dang cheap. Even better, if you buy an iPhone, Apple TV or Mac Book you will get an entire year of AppleTV+ for free. That means that the first subscriber numbers for AppleTV+ will be impressive, making investors very, very happy.
However, it remains to be seen just how impressive AppleTV+ will be. Apple is definitely putting a lot of money into the talent running things but we don’t know how that’ll translate into quality. There’s a chance that Apple’s shows will be shiny, expensive and completely boring and flat. That’s fairly unlikely, at least some of AppleTV+’s roster will be worth your time, but it’s still an untested and unproven entity for now.
Apple’s news, hot on the heels of Disney showcasing Disney+, is sure to make Netflix, Amazon and Hulu even more frightened ahead of the upcoming streaming wars. Things are heating up. Analysts are predicting that both Apple and Disney will cut into the market pretty substantially, with Disney posing a very real threat to become the new streaming champion. All of this seemed unfathomable a few years ago but Netflix and the others are going to have a hard time competing with these deep catalogues and these cheap price points. Expect Netflix to attempt something big — a price drop perhaps — to keep subscribers coming in.
So which will you subscribe to? Will you invest in all the major streaming services or will you choose one over the others?