Apple’s new plans for TV sound a lot like Amazon’s and Roku’s.
Apple $AAPL’s new plans for TV sound a lot like Amazon $AMZN’s and Roku $ROKU’s.
The maker of iPhones and laptops is trying to turn its TV app into the home for all your video services. Think about it as the TV bundle of the digital age—although there are still a lot of questions about what that will look like.
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Here’s what we know so far: In May, Apple will begin pulling video subscriptions like HBO, Showtime, and Starz—Apple TV channels, as it’s calling them—into its existing TV app on iOS devices, Apple TV, and eventually, Mac computers. It will also pull in content and make recommendations across more than 150 other video apps, like Amazon Prime Video and Hulu, along with live-TV bundles like DirecTV Now, and streaming apps for cable services like Spectrum. The TV app will debut original content from Apple beginning in the fall, through a paid tier, TV+. (Apple has not yet said what it will cost.) And the TV app will carry the iTunes store’s on-demand library of movies and TV shows.
Apple isn’t the only tech company on this mission. Amazon Prime Video, through its similarly titled Channels platform, has been selling subscriptions to apps like HBO and CBS All Access for roughly four years now. Amazon bills customers for the subscriptions and streams the content from within the Prime Video app. Streaming-media player Roku brought subscription services like Showtime and Starz into its Roku Channel earlier this year, so people can access the content from one place rather than moving between apps. And Facebook $META is reportedly considering selling subscriptions as well.
Here’s how the offerings from Apple, Amazon, and Roku stack up as of now:
