It Makes No Sense For Apple to Create Original TV Content

The Particle Debris article of the week is at CNBC.

• Apple’s an exceptional brand — and I really hope it doesn’t turn into a TV company

The author, Anita Balakrishnan, echoes my own thoughts. I also believe, that at first glance, it seems to make no sense for Apple to get into the original TV content business. When I think about this effort, I think about all the wannabe companies who have thought that making their own smartphone would be a good idea. Apple’s initiative also feels like copycat envy.

Even if Apple’s stuff is as good as the rest, do we really need a glut of it?

Of course, one might surmise that there are deeper reasons for this project from Apple. But for now, I’m thinking like the CNBC author.

There’s nothing special about providing consumers more to consume, especially when companies like Amazon have built their entire businesses on it.

This approach is especially poignant in light of Apple’s approach to the hapless 4th generation Apple TV. It came out late because there was an attempt to tie it to a subscription deal that failed. It didn’t have 4K capability. Apple has been very low key when it comes to promoting its support of the 4K/UHD revolution.

Only recently, have we seen signs that Apple is planning to re-ignite the product as it did with the Mac at WWDC. Whether that release will be accompanied by Apple getting more involved with the TV industry, partnering, joining standards committees, advertising cool hardware in all the right places remains to be seen.

On Monday, August 28th, my Background Mode podcast guest will be Former Apple Senior Director Michael Gartenberg. We discuss this issue in much more detail.

One possible reason for Apple to get into the content business is the expectation that they will have a tougher time in the future closing deals for content. Already, we’ve seen how the studios are thinking about pulling out of Netflix and connecting with customers directly via custom apps. Provincialism reigns. In an analogus fashion, perhaps Apple see’s difficulties down the road in its customary 30% take (less in the case of Netflix) and wants to secure a digital beachhead with its own content and 4K/UHD/HDR Apple TV.

The entertainment industry is fast moving and cutthroat. Even so, and even with seasoned studio executives brought on board, such as Matt Cherniss, the former president of WGN America plus Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg who were both presidents of Sony Pictures Television, Apple is reaching far—in uncharted waters.

That speculation aside, author Balakrishnan makes great sense with her opening and closing.

It doesn’t make sense for Apple to make TV shows. Reverse-engineering content to fill up space on someone’s screen is not an inspired strategy….

So my message to Apple is to do more than make a movie. Think different.

Finally, what good is me-too original content if the flagship delivery system, the Apple TV, has been left to sink into 4th place in the market?

Next Page: The News Debris For The Week Of August 21st. Germany takes an ethical lead on autonomous cars.

Page 2 – News Debris For The Week Of August 21st

The Ethics of Autonomous Cars

Here at TMO, thanks to Apple, we’ve written thousands of words about autonomous cars. But there has been little in the way of guidance from the U.S. federal government about how the difficult sociological and legal issues will be managed.

I took note if this story at The Next Web about Germany formally taking the lead on this. “Germany’s self-driving car solution: Kill animals, damage property, protect humans.” The upshot is that the German Ethics Commission has published “a set of 20 points that could shape our autonomous future.”

Included in the guidelines are these assertions. In part:

• The protection of human life always has the top priority … even at the expense of property.


• The driver should be able to decide who owns his vehicle data.

Not mentioned is the distinction between prioritizing and saving the passengers or pedestrians. Previously I have written about surveys that revealed that drivers would be very hesitant to buy an autonomous car that prioritized a pedestrian over them riding in the car. See: “Autonomous Vehicles Might Develop Superior Moral Judgment.”

This all goes to show that, eventually, we as a society are going to have to grapple with many social, ethical and moral issues related to autonomous cars. I invited the Editor-in-Chief of Car and Driver magazine, Eddie Alterman, to come on my Background Mode podcast to discuss all this, and the discussion was phenomenal. Watch for that podcast coming soon.

In any case, Germany has made a start. It’s time for the United States to develop similar rules, driven by all concerned, instead of leaving it up others to provide leadership. Well done Germany.

• I’m going to close with this next item because it’s closely related. “A top engineer says robots are starting to enter pre-K and kindergarten alongside kids.” Now, to be sure, this is nowhere near happening. And it’s not going to happen at any kind of scale for many years.

But I’m bringing it up now because its a foretaste of the future. Our technical ability to create advanced electronic products is outpacing our culture’s ability to absorb, manage, legislate, and come to terms with these products. Just consider the privacy and encryption debate.

For example, in the case I just mentioned, what if a parent suspects a child is being bullied and sends its own family robot along with the child as an escort. Must the school admit the robot to the classroom? What if the robot, with 360 degree robocams as documented evidence, is assaulted? Or kidnapped? Is it just property to be written-off in deference to the human aggressors?

Many modern products are bought to market with great hopes, enthusiasm, and marketing hype. We’re left to sort out the disruption they may cause because it’s not in a corporation’s interest to do so.

And it’s only going to get worse with AI, robots and autonomous cars. Advisory commissions need to be formed, not disbanded.

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Particle Debris is a generally a mix of John Martellaro’s observations and opinions about a standout event or article of the week (preamble on page one) followed on page two by a discussion of articles that didn’t make the TMO headlines, the technical news debris. The column is published most every Friday except for holiday weekends.

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