Apple TV+ spent $20B on original content. If only people actually watched.

Oh, I already ranted over in https://lemmy.world/post/22226162 first but,

As an Android user, how do you propose I watch? I'm aware that you released to some Android TV devices a few years ago, you haven't released to the Android OS yet and as a Chromecast user I'm still out of luck.

You're ignoring a huge section of the market, so go fuck yourself Apple. You don't get to ignore users and then complain that no one is watching.

Do you remember when Game of Thrones was only available via HBO Go, which was only available via iOS devices and then Game of Thrones was the most pirated TV show? I FUCKING WONDER WHY???

I've (somehow?) watched a number of Apple shows and they are good shows. Mythic Quest, Shrinking, Severance. I'm you're target audience, it's time you pay attention to that audience.

You're not picking me up now, I've already found "other methods" but you can win me back if you make it easier. It's going to take some time, but time to get started.

The reason is Apple is not in the streaming business, it's in the hardware business and sales business.

Apple is not trying to get you to just join it's streaming service. It's trying to get you to buy it's hardware so you're in it's ecosystem so it gets 1/3 of everything you spend on content and services. It's the ultimate route in upselling.

You buy an Apple TV device, you watch some of their shows but also you buy some apps, and you sign up for other services (who have to pay apple for access), maybe you buy content through iTunes.

Apple wants you using Apple TV, and get an IPhone and a Mac and tablet etc. If you're not on an Apple device they don't want you because you're able to spend money elsewhere.

Apples whole business is vendor lock-in. They just lock you in a gilded cage so you don't realise you're a prisoner. And they make you pay for the gilding.

$20bn is nothing in the scale of Apples ecosystem.
- I think you're 100% correct. I'm bothered by the article dancing around this by using the word "marketing".
  
  I wish the article pushed back against Apple and pointed out their obviously missing flaw, even if it's part of their strategy.
- They are more and more in the cloud data subscription business instead, utilizing their closed ecosystem and then using the data for their own advertising side hustle like google (though at least they don't sell the data to the lowest bidder like google)
  
  I don't know if many people have switched to an iPhone recently, but my mother did.
  
  An iPhone gives you 1 GB of iCloud storage "free" and automatically force-enables icloud backup for everything on the phone like photos, videos, contacts, etc... So that it is immediately full and then gives you almost constant big warnings and reminders that you will lose all of your data and there is a problem with your phone unless you pay 5€ per month to upgrade your iCloud storage.
  
  It is a royal pain to use a different backup service instead.
  
  Apple also artificially caps storage on their phones and laptops (256GB on their 1100€ macbook air model in 2024? 512 GB on their 2000€ macbook pro model??) And push iCloud and iCloud plus hard, just like Microsoft is doing with their horrible OneDrive decisions and baking in "One drive save" as default in all of their apps.
I tried to sign up for a 3 month trial that came with my TV. I had to create an account on my phone or PC. No problem. Then I had to validate my account somehow? It was essentially impossible to do without an Apple device. I went through tier 2 and tier 3 support, nobody could figure out how to activate my account. They wanted me to send screenshots of my error messages, but I could only submit them through my activated account.

After a few days I got an email saying my account was permanently locked. I called about that and they put in a ticket to have my account unlocked. Another few days and an email saying my ticket request was denied. I called to have them delete my account, they said I could only initiate that request by logging into my activated account. Most incompetent service I've ever encountered (not the customer service agents, the people who created such a horrible process).
Kinda funny too when Android has something like a 70%+ global market share.
This is the purpose of “the customer is always right”. If the demand is already there but there’s no supply, that’s bad business.
- Apple's focus is vendor lock-in. Everything in their ecosystem integrates perfectly. They're selling devices that lock you in to their ecosystem and they get a 1/3 cut from all digital sales from competitors also using their platform.
  
  They're not interested in getting as many people as possible watching their shows. They're interested in getting as many people as possible buying Apple TV devices, and then getting drawn into the Apple ecosystem.
  
  Regard the $20bn spent on TV shows as marketing spend.
- It's not there's no supply, it's we're going to provide you and force you to use only our approved methods of delivery, which has always been Apples whole gig since their inception. It's why I refuse to use their products.
They were recently added as a channel in Prime, at least in the US. Can’t you access it through that?
- Oh I figured out a way a long time ago. But since they make it a pain to watch, I'm going to make it a pain to be a user.
  
  I pay for enough streaming services as it is, and they all behave in a way that makes me happy (enough).
  
  Also looks like I'd need to already be paying for Amazon Prime, so I'd already be out of luck. Plus of all the apps Prime is the worst, so I'm not looking to jump back into the Prime app. (I dropped Prime earlier this year once they added ads.)
Apple TV is available for pretty much every major TV platform. Chromecast has been abandoned by Google so why would Apple support it?
- Because that article is from August and Apple has had YEARS to implement it. Also they're just discontinuing the Chromecast device, not the Chromecast protocol which means if I bought this new device I could use every single app I use right now in the exact same way I have it right now. EXCEPT Apple TV would require remote navigation.
- You are conflating the Chromecast device with Chromecast the tech.
  
  Chromecast the tech still exists. I wouldn't support it, but thats not the same as it being discontinued.

Pirate here. I've watched some, most is ok. Slow Horses is not a great example, I would have gone with Severance as the poster child.

The content they make has got a good niche in upper middle class and upper class gen-Xers, but to the rest of us, it mostly jusy feels “okay”. Ted Lasso is one of the few exceptions that overperformed beyond that niche.
First season of Slow Horses was fantastic, a breath of fresh air, filling in a place left empty since Tinker Tailor's last iteration. I was stoked and had high hopes, none of the ensuing seasons have been as good, to the point they feel lazy now.
- I've really enjoyed every season so far.
- I hate that I agree with you. I thought it would be something else and then the first season ended and it was a worse burn notice.

I love Apple TV. Quite a few good shows as well. I know they don't have as much content as other streaming services, but what they do have for the most part is amazingly good. So I don't mind paying for substance over content.

Silo.
Ted Lasso.
Shrinking.
Foundation.
Severance.
Monarch.
Loot.
Before.
Dark Matter.

And those are just the ones I've watched. There are a few more that are on my list to watch. As long as they keep focusing on good quality stories with great actors and cinematography, I'll keep subscribing.

For All Mankind, too.
- For all mankind lost me in the second season with the affair. Seemed way too soap opera for me.

Ted Lasso is a masterpiece

I haven't heard a single bad word about ted lasso, but i just can't get into it. Is there like a: "you have to watch this far until it gets really good." Moment?
- Funnily enough it started very strong for me, and fell off hard towards the end of season 3. If the first 1-2 episodes don't interest you, you probably won't be interested at all.
- I'd probably give it 4 or 5 episodes tbh, let the characters evolve a bit.
  
  Basically the show stands out because it's just straight happiness. It's rarely sad, and when it briefly is it bounces right back immediately. A feel good show through and through, which is so rare these days.

I watched Foundation season 1. Which while visually striking, and the Empire stuff with Pace was really good, I was still pulling at my hair at all the dumb choises made in-show and irl. Sorry for Butcher grammar, no coffee yet.

Severance was fantastic though. Too bad we had to wait so long for s2.

Foundation is my Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, or Dune. When they fucking butchered it, I walked away, and I'll never come back.

As a fellow lover of Asimov, I absolutely felt the same way, and the name of David Goyer will forever be associated in my mind with mediocre arrogance and arrogant mediocrity.
Everything about the ideas and spirit of Asimov was betrayed, with predictably inferior results.

"I'm better than Asimov... look... this here's my Ferrari!"

I love For All Mankind, despite its shortcomings. I wish some fan could make an abridged version.

It was good for the first season when they were more focused on how things would have been different technologically and politically. Then in the middle of the second season there was an obvious shift to more "soap opera" type stories. I lost interest after that.

I never see their ads, the only thing I’ve seen of theirs is Silo

(which was good, season 2 starts soon)

Silo S2 has already started btw - ep 1 was last Friday.
- 👀 gotta finish Arcane first
They have some more shows that are definitely worth watching like Tes Lasso, All for mankind, and Master of the air to name a few.

Season 2 of Silo started a couple of days ago with one episode a week
- one episode a week
  
  guys, I've figured out why no one watches
- Ted Lasso! I have also seen that, enjoyed it a lot. Haven’t heard of that last one though

Thank you for posting here!

As someone who has it and never watches my answer is:

“Why so serious?”

I’m sure it’s not bad stuff. I’m sure it’s actually really good. But the world is bad and even the UI starts out serious. And the whole vibe of their imaging choices is desaturated. And I need a break from serious things happening to people I guess.

Fully admit this is irrational and jokingly blame Jonathan Ive for leaving.

There is nothing that will ever convince me to sign up to Apple TV.

Why?
- There's very little content for it to be worth it IMHO. I constantly use whatever 2-3 month free offers that come up, catch up on something and if the free trial expires (you can usually use it on same acct as long as it's not active) I'll just download the remaining few episodes. Shoutout to the redflagdeals people who post the free offers for appletv
- I'm just anti-Apple. They also don't have much good content, anyway.