During the WGA strike, I spoke several times with an Apple TV+ executive and those pieces were some of the most-shared and read posts of mine in 2023.
I recently spoke again with the executive and we talked about some of the high (and low) lights from 2023.
The interview was lightly edited for clarity.
Q: What lessons do you think the studios learned from the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes?
A: It's above my paygrade, but I think it's pretty clear that AMPTP negotiators decided to run things in the same way they had in previous strikes. And for the most part, that decision was a disaster. Running the normal playbook of trying to wait out the unions and utilize agenices and higher-grade members to pressure the negotiating committees had some effect this time around. But not in the way it had in previous strikes. And it took entirely too long to get there.
Q: Does that mean you think the approach to negotiating might change when it comes time to start discussing the next MBA (minimum basic agreement)?
A: I hope so. As I said, it's not something I deal with directly. And God knows where I'll be in three years. But everyone I've talked to seems to acknowledge that a lot of time was lost unnecessarily. But it's certainly not my call.
Q: My understanding is that Apple was one of the companies who really pushed back during the negotiations when it came to efforts to limit the use of artificial intelligence. Do you have any perspective on that approach?
A: Some of it is just trying to protect options. No one knows what the AI landscape will look like in two or three years. And my take is that the company wanted to be able to experiment if the technology was available.
Also, we already have productions that use a lot of technical tricks to get the finished product in the shape where it needs to be. Some of the initial asks by the unions would have limited some of what we do now. Which is problematical.
Q: What do people in the industry get wrong about Apple TV+?
A: (laughing) I want to say "just about everything." But I get it. We don't share a lot of core data publicly, so it can be hard to see how our business works. Without accurate subscriber numbers - and I can tell you that most of the estimates I've seen are wrong - it can be hard to judge success or failure from the outside.
But it's more than that. I frequently read pieces from journalists who claim that because Apple has been throwing off a lot of revenue, it doesn't matter how much we spend on content. And I have sat in enough budget meetings to tell you that claim isn't even remotely accurate. No one is getting any blank checks around here.
Q: But can you talk about what success does look like at Apple TV+? I think most outsiders could define what a successful business at Peacock or Max would look like. But Apple TV+ or Amazon Prime are a lot more challenging because of the way they're integrated into the mothership business.
A: It's interesting that you brought up Amazon, because although they have a very different business than we do, we both have similar challenges. The video business is graded both as how it is doing on a standalone business and also how effectively it is contributing to the entire business. And that can be complicated to discern even on an internal basis.
I liked the point you made a week or two ago about the reasons why Prime Video is adding a surcharge to its new ad-free business. Because there isn't a separate fee for video, it's one of the few ways Amazon can drive more revenue for its video product without increasing the overall cost of its Prime product. All of that integration comes with its own challenges.
And we have similar challenges. Apple TV+ has a separate subscriber fee, but the integration with other Apple products is a mixed blessing. We're expected to drive business and revenue to the entire Apple ecosystem and that brings its own unique set of goals and roadblocks.
I don't think there is any major streaming service that isn't expected to carry its own weight. But how that success is defined does look very different, depending on the overall business model of the parent company.
