Apple has officially announced its upcoming streaming service. The service was unveiled during the company's major live event, where they also showed off a new Apple credit card, Apple Arcade and a number of new services. But the biggest splash came when they officially confirmed Apple TV+. This is going to be their way to compete directly with Netflix and Disney in the future of media, which will be driven by streaming.
The announcement came with a splashy and epic Video with some of Hollywood's biggest creators, who will be working to make content for Apple TV+. Steven Spielberg, J.J. Abrams, Sofia Coppola, M. Night Shyamalan, Ron Howard, Octavia Spencer, Damien, Chazelle, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and more all appeared in the dramatic video discussing their creative process. The name, itself, seems to be a shot at Disney, who are launching their own service, Disney+, later this year.
The service will be made available through the Apple TV app. It will be an ad-free service, with content available online and offline. Apple TV+ is coming this fall, but doesn't yet have an official launch date, and Apple promises that they will have new content every month. They sadly, at present, didn't announce a price point.
Steven Spielberg, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Jason Momoa, Alfre Woodard, Kumail Nanjiani, Steve Carell and more actually appeared at the event to talk about their upcoming projects for the service. Spielberg is working on an Amazing Stories reboot, Aniston and Witherspoon on a new show titled The Morning Show, which stars Carell, with Momoa and Woodard working on a new show titled See, which is an ambitious sci-fi drama about the human race all being blind for years after an apocalyptic event. Nanjiani is working on an anthology show about real-world immigrants titled Little America.
Big Bird then showed up on stage to the delight of the audience, with his new friend named Cody to announce a new Sesame Street spin-off titled Helpsters, which will teach preschoolers about coding. Next, we had J.J. Abrams and singer Sara Bareilles to announce a new show based on her experience in the music industry titled Little Voice. Bareilles then gave a live performance of the show's theme song. However, the splashiest moment came when they brought Oprah Winfrey out on stage to discuss her work for Apple TV+, which includes two documentaries and a massive book club.
The other major element of the TV side of things is the new Apple TV app, which will include a feature called Apple TV Channels. It promises to fold everything, streaming services, cable subscriptions and anywhere else one gets their content, all in one app. Once a user subscribes to a certain channel within the Apple TV app, they can browse all of that content within the Apple TV app, as opposed to going to the individual app that may house that content. Apple boasted a great deal about their recommendation engine within Apple TV Channels, claiming that this will be much more targeted and relevant to the user's interest. The Apple TV app will be coming to Mac and smart TVs, such as Samsung, LG, Sony Vizio, as well Roku and Fire TV, making it very accessible, even for those who aren't die-hard Apple users.
Apple made a splash today and the streaming service war has just been majorly amplified. We'll be sure to bring you more details on the service as they're made available. We have the Apple TV+ announcement video to check out below from the Apple YouTube channel, as well as the trailer for many of the upcoming shows.