Apple set to spend $1 billion on new Hollywood shows
The company is preparing a war chest for new content to compete with Amazon and Netflix, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Apple has its eye on more original content.
Apple apparently wants to make a big splash in Hollywood.
The tech giant is ready to spend $1 billion on new entertainment content over the next year, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.
That amount signals how serious Apple is about getting into the original content business. It's the latest big-name tech company to jump into this arena after Netflix showed the benefits of creating critically and commercially successful shows such as "House of Cards" or "Orange is the New Black." Since then, Amazon, Hulu and Google's YouTube have made big bets on their own shows.
That amount is sufficient to fund as many as 10 shows, according to the WSJ.
Apple declined to comment.
Creating popular and critically acclaimed programming isn't easy. The company has already released two shows, "Planet of the Apps" and "Carpool Karaoke," on its Apple Music service. Neither was widely praise. The company has tapped Sony television executives to help run its programming.
While $1 billion may seem like a bundle, it's a drop in the bucket compared with the $49 billion to $52 billion in revenue the company expects to generate in just the next quarter.