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Television Apple

Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing Its TV Shows? (fastcompany.com) 82

Posted by msmash from the stranger-things dept.
Speaking of streaming services, an anonymous reader shares a story that looks into Apple's entertainment offering: Ever since its launch in 2019, Apple TV+ has been carving out an identity as the new home for prestige shows from some of Hollywood's biggest names -- the kind of shows that sound natural coming out of Jimmy Kimmel's mouth in monologue jokes at the Emmys. While the company never provides spending details, Apple is estimated to have spent at least $20 billion recruiting the likes of Reese Witherspoon, M. Night Shayamalan, and Harrison Ford to help cultivate its award-worthy sheen. For all the effort Apple has expended, and for all the cultural excitement around Ted Lasso during its three-season run, the streaming service has won nearly 500 Emmys ... while attracting just 0.2% of total TV viewing in the U.S.

No wonder the company reportedly began reining in its spending spree recently. (Apple did not reply to a request for comment.) "It seems like Apple TV wants to be seen as a platform that's numbers-agnostic," says Ashley Ray, comedian, TV writer, and host of the erstwhile podcast TV I Say. "They wanna be known for being about the creativity and the love of making TV shows, even if nobody's watching them."

The experience of enjoying a new Apple TV+ series can often be a lonely one. Adventurous subscribers might see an in-network ad about something like last summer's Sunny, the timely, genre-bending Rashida Jones series about murderous AI, and give it a shot -- only to find that nobody else is talking about it in their social media feeds or around the company Keurig machine. Sure, the same could be said for hundreds of other streaming series in the post-monoculture era, but most streaming companies aren't consistently landing as much marquee talent for such a limited library. (Apple currently has 259 TV shows and films compared to Netflix's nearly 16,000.)

How is it possible for a streaming service to have as much high-pedigree programming as Apple TV+ does and so relatively few viewers, despite an estimated 25 million paid subscribers? How can shows starring Natalie Portman, Idris Elba, and Colin Farrell launch and even get renewed without ever quite grazing the zeitgeist? How does a show set in the same Monsterverse as Godzilla vs. Kong, and starring Kurt Russell and his roguishly charming son, not become a monster-size hit?

For many perplexed observers, the blame falls squarely on Apple's marketing efforts, or seeming lack thereof.

Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing Its TV Shows? More | Reply

Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing Its TV Shows?

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  • Applesauce (Score:3, Insightful)

    by KlomDark ( 6370 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @12:11PM (#64887519) Homepage Journal
    Because that company is slightly past its peak, it's all downhill from here.

    • Re:Applesauce (Score:4, Funny)

      by Freischutz ( 4776131 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @12:25PM (#64887571)

      Because that company is slightly past its peak, it's all downhill from here.

      Michael Dell? Is that you?

    • Because that company is slightly past its peak, it's all downhill from here.

      Because Apple is a gadget company, and not a movie studio. They don't know how to be a movie studio, despite what they think.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      Nah, there's two straightforward answers:

      1. It is impossible to watch AppleTV shows somewhere else, so people who do not live in the US and do not have access to Apple hardware, aren't watching it.
      2. I have seen ads for Apple's shows, well at least one of them. On Youtube and Twitch. The problem? I can't watch them because I don't want to pay for AppleTV for one month to just watch one show, and unlike Netflix/Disney+ , there is not a massive content library worth subscribing for. If "The Simpsons" ever end

      • You can watch Apple TV + on Roku and Samsung TV. I suspect many other devices too. You don’t need an Apple TV box.

      • Precisely this. You know it is a bad sign when the service won't tell you right away how much the service costs. Apple TV costs slightly less than Amazon Prime, and Apple definitely isn't going to ship me stuff overnight for free.

        More importantly, when you look at the movies you can watch on Apple TV the second and third recommendations are Charlie Brown movies that were produced before I was born (and I am old). Unless you are Charles Schulz's mother you aren't paying $10/month for that lineup, no mat

        • And even Netflix didn't have enough content to keep me as a subscriber. I'll join them again in mid to late 2025 and probably cancel in January 2026.

          At $5, I was fine with keeping Apple. At $10, I cancelled at the end of that month.

      • It has a half dozen to a dozen (depending on your tastes) good programs ( Ted Lasso, Monarch, Masters of the Skys ) .

        You sign up.. you watch 40 to 80 hours of content for $30 over 3 months, then you cancel it.

    • Apple has just been bad at marketing in general this year. They've spent the past weeks promoting "Apple Intelligence" in their advertising as the #1 reason to get an iPhone 16, even though the feature is still in beta and probably won't be publicly available to everyone for a few more weeks.

      Someone royally screwed up the timeline on that one.

  • I couldn't make it through the first episode.

    • You're not their target market.

      Most of criticism seems to be they're not Netflix or a competitor, or worse, they're content marketers looking for work through criticizing them.

      None of that works on Apple. Apple is hyperfocused on the audience they want and viciously ignore all else in that quest.

      You're not the target, using a single anecdotal instance of something you don't like. It's not about you. It's about lots of critics who would otherwise love to be Apple's marketing contractor pack. But that's not g

      • The 0.2% is not the target either. They market to the high end, but they make their money in the mid end.

        They want to get to the mid end while keeping the high end sheen by avoiding gauche types of marketing, but 5 years is probably past the point they planned for.

      • Apple is aiming for a small target and missing. And they are spending big money doing it. They have a lot of money so they can do it for a long time, but that doesn't make it a good idea.

    • The first episode was good enough to get me to watch a few more and after the third I was hooked enough to finish watching it. It's not for everyone, but I liked what it was trying to do enough to stick around. It's better with it's characters than the majority of shows regardless of genre so even if the comedy doesn't always land with me, I'm at least invested enough to watch for other reasons.

      I think the bigger problem is that once people have watched Ted Lasso what reason is there for them to stick a

      • I think the bigger problem is that once people have watched Ted Lasso what reason is there for them to stick around?

        Well, as the article is saying, Apple have lots more great shows that people aren't watching. Silo, Slow Horses, Severance - all fantastic.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Calibax ( 151875 )

      Apple TV is much more than Ted Lasso. With TV shows like The Silo, Slow Horses, Shrinking, Foundation, Severance, plus movies like Killers of the Flower Moon, Argylle, Sharper, The Instigators, and Wolfs (just to name some each category that come to mind immediately) it really is a top notch channel.

      Of all the channels we have, Apple TV is likely the last I would cancel.

  • Why I never signed up (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Sebby ( 238625 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @12:23PM (#64887561)

    Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing Its TV Shows?

    Got a free AppleTV+ 'trial' when I bought an iDevice a while back.

    Several weeks in, I started watching 'For All Mankind' - the only real show I had any interest in (and time) watching - while entertaining, there's *one* simple thing that Apple did to cause me to never subscribe past the trial: ads about their other shows, shown as the first thing at the beginning of an episode.

    I'm sure the "crack-marketing" team at Apple* would call them "previews", "teasers" or "promos", but I call them what they are: ads - stuff I don't care about and certainly didn't ask to see, but I'm stuck dealing with them (even if it's just 'skipping' or 'ignoring' them). And I'm sure as fuck not going to pay to have ads forced on me, and especially not reward Apple for doing so by paying a subscription fee to end up seeing ads - and if there's anyone that can make 20-mins-of-ads-before-the-movie-starts the new "normal" for streaming, it's Apple, and I'm not going to reward them for doing so.

    So it's not so much Apple sucks at promoting their shows - it's that they suck for promoting their shows.

    (* more like "marketing team on crack")

    • Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing Its TV Shows?

      Got a free AppleTV+ 'trial' when I bought an iDevice a while back.

      Several weeks in, I started watching 'For All Mankind' - the only real show I had any interest in (and time) watching - while entertaining, there's *one* simple thing that Apple did to cause me to never subscribe past the trial: ads about their other shows, shown as the first thing at the beginning of an episode.

      I'm sure the "crack-marketing" team at Apple* would call them "previews", "teasers" or "promos", but I call them what they are: ads - stuff I don't care about and certainly didn't ask to see, but I'm stuck dealing with them (even if it's just 'skipping' or 'ignoring' them). And I'm sure as fuck not going to pay to have ads forced on me, and especially not reward Apple for doing so by paying a subscription fee to end up seeing ads - and if there's anyone that can make 20-mins-of-ads-before-the-movie-starts the new "normal" for streaming, it's Apple, and I'm not going to reward them for doing so.

      So it's not so much Apple sucks at promoting their shows - it's that they suck for promoting their shows.

      (* more like "marketing team on crack")

      ...and skipping over those trailers is somehow worse than having to hit the [Skip intro] button at the start of every damn episode on other streaming services because? Also, you can turn it off in: 'Apple TV -> Settings App -> Accessibility -> Motion -> Auto-Play Video Previews' ... well hidden, but you can turn it off. That said it took me 10 seconds to find that tip with a search engine.

      • Re:Why I never signed up (Score:4, Interesting)

        by NoMoreDupes ( 8410441 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @12:46PM (#64887665)

        ...and skipping over those trailers is somehow worse than having to hit the [Skip intro] button at the start of every damn episode on other streaming services because?

        Because one shouldn't have to deal with such bullshit, especially when paying for a service. I'm with the GP - fuck'em (Apple) for pushing this BS, because I've not had to deal with any such BS on any other paid streaming service I have myself. But obviously, you do you.

        Also, you can turn it off in: 'Apple TV -> Settings App -> Accessibility -> Motion -> Auto-Play Video Previews' ... well hidden, but you can turn it off. That said it took me 10 seconds to find that tip with a search engine.

        until they remove that option, with the arrogant reasoning that '... because people always left it on, so obviously enjoy them!" (yeah - because you've hidden the option with no "discoverability" - a favourite word of Apple's for which they've forgotten the true meaning).

        • Also, you can turn it off in: 'Apple TV -> Settings App -> Accessibility -> Motion -> Auto-Play Video Previews'

          until they remove that option, with the arrogant reasoning that '... because people always left it on, so obviously enjoy them!" (yeah - because you've hidden the option with no "discoverability" - a favourite word of Apple's for which they've forgotten the true meaning).

          Indeed - and who the fuck puts in that type of option under Accessibility/motion!?!?!?

        • Hit the skip button, itâ(TM)s a momentary interruption. Unlike services that really blast ads at you, even if youâ(TM)re paying. Talk about a storm in a teacup.

          But I think you just wanted to write a negative comment about Apple, and if it wasnâ(TM)t this you would have found something else.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )

        Also, you can turn it off in:

        Didn't exist at the time of my trial (yes, I had looked), so too-little-too-fucking-late. Plus I wouldn't trust them to not try resetting it or trying other similar crap in the future, given they Facebook-tried it in the first place (make it "the new normal for streaming").

    • "ads about their other shows, shown as the first thing at the beginning of an episode"

      BY that metric you reject even HBO as having ads.

      If you declare that you'll never subscribe to a streaming service or watch broadcast or cable television, there no reason for a streaming service or broadcast or cable television to try to cater to you.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Sebby ( 238625 )

        "ads about their other shows, shown as the first thing at the beginning of an episode"

        BY that metric you reject even HBO as having ads.

        I don't have HBO, so I can't verify what you say, but sounds like I wouldn't want it.

        When I press "play" on a selected episode to start watching it, I want to start watching that episode now, NOT anything else. It's a pretty simple concept that a number of $trillion companies (or people) can't seem to grasp.

        (and yes, I've returned some Disney DVDs in the 2000s because the damn things always had 10 mins of their fucking unskippable "previews" I had to deal with when the kids wanted to watch the movie right

    • [...] there's *one* simple thing that Apple did to cause me to never subscribe past the trial: ads about their other shows, shown as the first thing at the beginning of an episode. [...]

      Hopefully you never subscribe to Paramount+, you will blow your top. Those pre-roll ads are unskippable.

  • Criterion Channel (Score:5, Interesting)

    by crunchy_one ( 1047426 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @12:28PM (#64887583)
    I tried AppleTV+ for a while. I enjoyed it at first, but new programming arrives at a trickle which left me going weeks without watching it. So I cancelled it and spent the money on the Criterion Channel instead. It's a streaming service that offers thousands of good movies. If you're into movies, you'll love it as much as I do. It's a treasure that not many people know about. Check it out.

    • I tried AppleTV+ for a while. I enjoyed it at first, but new programming arrives at a trickle which left me going weeks without watching it. So I cancelled it and spent the money on the Criterion Channel instead. It's a streaming service that offers thousands of good movies. If you're into movies, you'll love it as much as I do. It's a treasure that not many people know about. Check it out.

      Same for Disney+, and since I don't particularly enjoy watching tons of old moves all over again I cancelled that subscription as well.

  • I'm an anime nerd and when small streaming services get something cool it's hard to keep up.

    HiDive has the hilarious Demon Girl Next Door and Oshi no Ko and that's cool and all, but everything else they have is run of the mill Isekai trash. Completely forgettable.

    Hulu got Go Go Loser Ranger and Ishura, both absolutely Amazing.

    Netflix is still sitting on Dorohedoro and Godzilla Singular Point.

    But again, these are one offs. The big stuff still always ends up on Crunchyroll.

    The problem is i

  • I've had Apple TV+ a few times as a free trial and saw no reason to continue it. I have no idea what "prestige shows" they are talking about. I thought "Masters of the air" was ok, but nothing "prestige". Maybe the reason nobody watches their stuff is they looked at it and it just wasn't that interesting.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by varag ( 714360 )

      I had the same experience. Ted Lasso was OK, but after that there was literally nothing else...

    • I watched the first two seasons of Ted Lasso, and it was good and then okay... Their take on Foundation was frankly kind of boring, but I suspect that isn't entirely their fault. Asimov's books are almost entirely people talking, and even the action tends to be people talking about the action, so it makes actually producing a filmable script that isn't just pages of dialogue a little tough, but without the dense dialogue, it really is a semi-incomprehensible sci-fi show. The reason Dune never really works a

      • I also watched Ted Lasso and I completely missed their take on Foundation. Must have been really subtle as I didn't even really see the show as a sci-fi. Certainly a lot of dialogue for a sports-themed show.

  • The fact that the name Apple attached to it makes me wary to even try with my android phone and Chromecast.

    It took my girlfriend a few tries to get through the frustrations of their sign up process (required an apple ID I think). Sure, it probably only took a few minutes, but who wants to deal with that when there's other options already signed up for.

    Having said that, we loved Shrink (though Shrinking on peacock is better), and Severance and enjoyed Ted Lasso.

    They seem to be trying to create for quality wh

    • Agree. I just don't want to put my toe into the Apple waters at all.

      I have gotten this far in life without giving Apple any money. I am not going to start now.

  • Too long between seasons (Score:3)

    by Comboman ( 895500 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @12:47PM (#64887669)

    I loved season 1 of Severance, which premiered in Feb 2022. Season 2 is set to drop in Jan 2025, three years later. Even if you like all of the content on AppleTV, there isn't enough of it frequently enough to justify maintaining a subscription. You can sign up for a month, watch everything you like and then cancel for a couple years until there's enough content there for another month of watching.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bert64 ( 520050 )

      If you have Apple devices and periodically refresh them you can probably catch up with the shows using the free trials you get with each device...

    • That was my plan, but by the time I think there's enough stuff, I can't remember what all I was going to watch. So I'm still waiting to sign up again. I don't know if you can log in without a subscription and add things to a list. Would probably need that to have any hope of keeping track.

  • Wrong question (Score:3, Insightful)

    by sunderland56 ( 621843 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @01:00PM (#64887709)

    Better question: why are Apple's TV shows so bad?

    Related question: if Apple has one single show I want to watch, is it worth $10 a month? Hint: answer is no.

  • Not paying for any of this. I guess im not their target audience. Problem with all these streaming services is you gotta pay for them. Fuck that.

  • ...to "Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing".

    Lately Apple's ads are like fish out of water. A recent one that comes to mind is the vice press that squishes real world objects like violins because "thanks to AI you don't need 'em".

    I suspect Tim Cook's toadies are afraid to say "no".

    • ...to "Why is Apple So Bad at Marketing".

      Lately Apple's ads are like fish out of water. A recent one that comes to mind is the vice press that squishes real world objects like violins because "thanks to AI you don't need 'em".

      I suspect Tim Cook's toadies are afraid to say "no".

      Thank you. The first thought in my mind was, "Why is Apple so bad at marketing?" They've had a few real duds lately, haven't they?

      Tim Cook seems to like to imagine he's the marketing genius Jobs was, but I have a funny feeling Jobs, if he could look down and watch this nonsense, would probably be facepalming hard enough to send him into backward somersaults on a regular basis.

  • I thought about subscribing to Apple TV but it turns out, you need a smart TV or apple streaming device. I'm not buying a one off apple doohickey just to stream a few shows. I guess they will soon allow their content via Prime Video, but by now, I've gotten used to ignoring all news of apple tv shows.

  • It's the likes of TikTok, who are eating their lunch. My guess, most don't have the patience to watch lengthy and long running shows anymore.

    • I have plenty of patience for that. But I already have enough shows to see. They would just be "one more." Doesn't really matter how good the show is if nobody is talking about it because I already have plenty of good.

      I think if you enjoy quality you might be watching a lot less TV overall anyway. So adding more streaming subscriptions is a tough sell. Especially since Apple is unlikely to be a first choice.

  • An Apple One Premier subscription runs 38USD a month: 2TB cloud, music, tv, news, arcade, and fitness with family sharing so 5 other accounts can use all services. Apple just needs to keep its tv library compelling enough to make subscribers think twice about downgrading their subscription.

  • Big problem (Score:3)

    by istartedi ( 132515 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @01:52PM (#64887831) Journal

    Oh noes. A $trillions company is having a hard time putting another layer of icing on the cake. I'm going to lose so much sleep over this.

    • If they're making something you enjoy watching and it's cancelled before you're done with it, you might care about that.

      • If they're making something you enjoy watching and it's cancelled before you're done with it, you might care about that.

        To circle back to the thesis of the article, we would have to know about it in the first place for that to happen.

        If it hadn't been for colleagues of mine telling me about Ted Lasso at work, and that I might like it, I wouldn't have even known that Apple has its own streaming service let alone that the show exists.

        I'm not an Apple user, so I suspect that their marketing efforts might be directed towards their existing customer base, if they have any marketing efforts to speak of. But you can't get attached

        • My point was that YOU might know, but not enough other people would.

        • I wouldn't have even known that Apple has its own streaming service let alone that the show exists.

          Sort of the downside of selling a device called Apple TV for years and then suddenly adding a plus sign to the name to market their streaming service that doesn't require the hardware.

  • Folks can subscribe to the Apple TV+ streaming service without an AppleTV / Mac / Phone / or Tablet. I believe there's an app available on Roku and Amazon Fire devices. Can subscribe and watch on a web browser.

    But Apple doesn't push the service; it only associates it with the AppleTV. *Foolish Marketing*

    Found this out after showing Win/Android buddy For All Mankind, the alternate timeline space race show. At the time, was $4.99 a mo so worth it for my friend to grab it for a month to binge.

  • You have to pay to watch the content and there aren't enough viewers to make word of mouth plausible. I heard that Amazon decided to make their content available to all other networks to purchase after a certain amount of time was passed so that people can view it elsewhere. Their Rings of Power season one was playing on Samsung's channels at one point I noticed. I think that's one way to gather interet and offset the cost.
  • Invasion is so bad you'll never watch another series. You'll take up something else.

  • "The Problem with White People"... That was enough to make me never subscribe to apple tv. If that's the sentiment they have then I hope they go bankrupt.

  • I think Apple consistently has some of the best original programming around. I put them right up there with HBO. I think it the numbers have to do with fatigue as much as anything else. Most people don’t want to pay for yet another service. I wound not pay for Prime video if it wasn’t included with the shipping. I get Max for no additional charge with my phone bill. Apple TV is a bundled add on to the cloud storage I pay for. I pay for ESPN+ for college football and NHL. Apple for MLS soccer. An

    • They should license the content to other streaming services then. It's a win/win. Apple gets paid for the expensive content and it gives people a taste which may bring them in to their ecosystem.

  • ... and the rest of their offerings just don't have the word-of-mouth buzz.

    If anything, Apple is now understanding that you can have all the right people to get a show going, and still not succeed.

  • I have an AppleTV+ subscription at the moment for a few shows I know I wanted to see (found through reviews and ads elsewhere). But it's hard to browse for new shows I. The website is close to useless. No categories, no text description of shows, just an image. It's the Coverflow debacle all over again, back when Apple made iTunes useless for finding anything because they thought everybody should use album cover images for searching instead of something as old-fashioned as text.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Calibax ( 151875 )

      You're on crack. Inded there is a Categories listing and there are a short (about three lines) descriptions of each item. I'm looking at it now. Maybe it's different if you are looking at the listings on a Mac (as I am) or something else, but that would make no sense.

  • Because they don't bother looking at or marketing to people outside their own ecosystem. Case in point- MLS Season Pass *still* has no Android app. You're forced to use a browser (and a Chromium one at that, can't use Firefox) to stream. Moreover, to even redeem my *free* MLS pass I had to use either an apple device (don't own one) or itunes (can't use that outside windows or mac- neither of which I have.) That is just so I could add a credit card for....a service which I already wasn't paying for. In the

  • The marketing is fine. The 100% price increase when I'd seen everything back last january did it for me.

    I'll check it out again in a couple years maybe.

    But at $5 (or even $6) it was worth keeping around all the time "just in case something I liked came along".

    At $10, it was "I'll binge and dump this station".

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