What will a new CEO mean for Apple’s TV business?
The big news of the day is the announcement that Tim Cook (fondly known by many as Tim Apple) has confirmed that he will step down as Apple CEO. Hardware chief John Ternus is set to take over Sept 1.
Speculation has been high that a succession was underway and that Ternus was going to be the guy. It was Ternus who fronted the recent launch of Apple’s nifty everyday-user-friendly Neo Macbooks.
A new CEO means we can expect to see a shift in Apple’s priorities over the next few years. Big questions on my mind:
Will we see an impact on Apple TV? Strategy shifts, efforts to scale up/down (Apple has likely missed its chance to supercharge its TV product with a Warner Bros Discovery acquisition), etc.
What happens with the Apple Vision Pro? Ternus is reportedly proudest of his teams work on the AirPods (a truly great product… I’m using them right now just as I do through far too much of the day). But how does he feel about the Apple Vision Pro – a really cool piece of hardware that was just too damn expensive to get the traction it needed.
And then there’s the Apple TV streaming box. Will we see much of a shift in terms of how invested Apple is in that product? Could it morph into a TV display (with most connected TVs nowadays offering a pretty good experience, the value proposition for an Apple TV has shrunk… surely taking ownership of the display is a reasonable pivot to make).
It’s an all-new era for Apple this year. And in the change to the new CEO, I imagine we will see a lot more activity from the hardware division than we are used to this year and next (already we have seen the Neo MacBooks… I assume the expected refreshed Apple TV is just a few months away).
Emmy win for Elisabeth Moss
Elisabeth Moss has had an Emmy win before trophies have even been handed out. The Academy has given the go ahead for her to be nominated for her role in The Testaments, a spin-off from The Handmaid’s Tale.
Moss had previously won for Best Actress in a Drama Series for her role in The Handmaid’s Tale, so there were questions around whether she was eligible for the Emmys in a guest star category playing the same character.
An Emmys rule says that an actor who has won can’t then be nominated for the same role in a guest category.
The Academy has deemed that The Testaments, a show with a different name, different lead characters, different visual style, and an entirely different business structure supporting its production and distribution, is in fact a different show. So, Ms Moss can compete in the category.
Not that her performance in The Testaments is really worthy of a nomination, mind you. It was fine, but there’s other more worthy performances.
News Desk
RIP actor Patrick Muldoon. Best known for his role on Melrose Place (and a fairly limited role in Starship Troopers), the actor died of a heart attack at age of 57. Read: BBC
Viewership for The Pitt continues to build with an increase of over 50 per cent of season one. Read: THR
Tom Hooper will direct the new Millie Bobby Brown Netflix film Nineteen Steps. Read: Deadline
Hulu has announced it’ll stream four new video podcasts. Three of them are TV recap podcasts (which makes sense) focused on New Girl, Prison Break, and This Is Us. Read: THR
Your favourite actor and mine Ryan Phillippe has joined 9-1-1 Nashville for season 2. He’ll play a ‘seductive bad boy with a past’ as part of his multi-year deal for the show. Read: Deadline
Journalism may have been saved, with The Onion striking a new deal to take over InfoWars. Read: THR
Barack & Michelle Obama’s production company Higher Ground is set to go independent following an eight-year run at Netflix. It makes sense for Netflix to step away from deals with political figures like this – they surely don’t help in getting merger approvals over the line. Read: Deadline
The BBC has picked up French superhero action series The Sentinels. Read: C21
RIP journeyman actor Rif Hutton, known for recurring roles on shows like Doogie Howser MD and JAG. Read: THR
Trailer Park
Dr Seuss’s Horton! Is back for season 2 on Netflix May 4.
Like Palpatine, somehow Super Troopers is back. The new film, Super Troopers 3, debuts August 7 in cinemas with most of the original cast back.
A better use of Brian Cox than that dopey 007 reality show on Prime Video…
That’s the newsletter for the today.
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