It’s not just about the music, Apple might have video streaming in the works as well

Earlier today we heard some fresh rumours about Apple’s long-awaited Beats-brand music streaming service, and now it seems that it also ambitions to try and conquer video streaming as well.

Tim Cook hasn’t exactly made a secret of how he thinks TV hasn’t change since the 1970s (not true Tim, so not true), so this report from Re/code claiming Apple is launching its own TV service shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

The idea is that Apple would be offering a selection of on-demand content for consumers to watch when they please, rather than going for the traditional line-up of live TV programming. As Re/code puts it, “Apple wouldn’t be reinventing the way TV works today, but offering its own version of it, with its own interface and user experience.”

Sounds less like TV and more like Netflix if I’m honest. Or Now TV, because I assume this service would come bundled with the Apple TV box.

Apparently Apple has given up on negotiating with US cable companies, and has decided it’ll be better off working with the people who actually make the content. Whether that means Apple will be bankrolling exclusive original content is unclear at this point, and since these discussions are still in the very early stages we probably won’t know for quite some time.

Would people be willing to subscribe to an Apple-owned streaming service instead of Amazon Prime or Netflix? We’ll have to wait and see, but Apple can get exclusive rights to something incredibly popular then it won’t have anything to worry about. Just look how Netflix benefited from being able to grab the exclusive rights to Breaking Bad.

Or it could always bundle TV and Beats together as one subscription, that could also work.

Tom Pritchard