No Sex Please, We’re Apple: iPhone Giant Seeks TV Success on Its Own Terms

Re:No Sex Please, We’re Apple: iPhone Giant Seeks TV Success... by PhantomGremlin on Sunday September 23, 2018 @04:06AM (#18049990)

Here's the subhead from the article: The tech giant wants to make scripted shows for streaming, only without violence, politics and risqué story lines

That already exists. It's called the Hallmark Channel.

My wife likes to watch. I also occasionally watch. At Hallmark the movies are invariably rated G and often end with the romantic leads having their first kiss (after about three interrupted attempts earlier in the movie).

I wish that, in at least some subset of the Hallmark movies, the romantic lead characters would "bang it out" at some point in the film. But that never happens. Nor have I ever seen a Hallmark movie with black lead characters. Haven't seen any gay lead characters either.

Hallmark is enjoyable. But it's a niche. Apple couldn't make enough money to move the needle by pursuing a niche like that. And how much edgier could they get if they're so worried about their brand?

Disney used to use the Touchstone Pictures distribution label for their edgier content. But that now seems to have faded out. Maybe the simplest answer is for Apple to use a different label for the risqué stuff?

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Re:No Sex Please, We’re Apple: iPhone Giant Seeks TV Success... by akvadrako on Sunday September 23, 2018 @05:20AM (#18050220)

There are more alternatives to "violence, politics and risque" than Hallmark. For instance Apple wants to produce a Foundation series based off Isaac Asimov's work.

Even Morman TV, which is similarly prudish, has the freedom to create exciting stories, like Extinct.

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Re:No Sex Please, We’re Apple: iPhone Giant Seeks TV Success... by w0utert on Sunday September 23, 2018 @05:34AM (#18050261)

I think his point was that apple would invariably end up serving a niche audience. Referring to two other examples of niche programming only reinforces that assertion.

Sure you could fill a whole service with programs for a wide variety of niche audiences, but I don’t think it would be very profitable as none of the individual shows will ever attract the kind of audience a show that is not constrained by these kinds of broad-stroke programming choices could attract.

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Re:No Sex Please, We’re Apple: iPhone Giant Seeks TV Success... by akvadrako on Sunday September 23, 2018 @05:45AM (#18050283)

His point clearly wasn't just "it's targeting niches" but "it's a niche like Hallmark". You however might have a point, but as long as it's sometime I'm into, great.

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