If you talk to any series enthusiast, they will tell you: the best platform currently is Apple TV+. Separation, The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, Slow Horses… Practically every series they upload is ensured to be meticulously crafted, with an interesting script, measured cinematography, and a renowned cast. There is just one problem: no one recommends the platform. When asked, they might talk about Netflix, Disney+, or Prime Video, but almost no one, outside of the free trial or specific moments (like when they release their big formats, for example), watches Apple. Can anyone explain why?
Half-bite Manzanita: the series
When blockbusters fail at the box office, there is always a refrain that some repeat over and over on social media, trying to convince a few deluded people of a falsified reality: “If it’s good, people will see it”. Obviously, this is not true: yes, there are many bad movies that fail, but even more masterpieces that go unnoticed in theaters or even on streaming services. Because the general audience doesn’t want “something good,” they want simple, easy entertainment to disconnect. To put it simply, something they can later criticize at will but would gladly consume two or three more sequels of.
Yes, Past Lives, Aftersun, or Portrait of a Lady on Fire are great, but do you know how those modern masterpieces would improve? With a superhero or a dinosaur. Let’s be clear: nowadays, what matters is not the quality of a movie or a series, but to be in favor and not to be tired yet of the current franchise. Because no, apparently, after 7 installments we are still not fed up with Jurassic Park. What you want is something to watch with the kids, something to talk about at the coffee machine, to recommend (perhaps ironically) to someone. To be in the loop, you know.
And that is the problem with Apple TV+. It may have the most incredible series in the world -in fact, it does-, but if it doesn’t have advertising on billboards, no one knows of its existence, it doesn’t do good marketing on social media and its series remain in an environment exclusively for fans, it will never take off. And that’s how it’s going: in March, it was announced that it was losing a billion dollars every year and that its subscribers only reached 45 million worldwide. That sounds like a lot (it’s more people than live in Canada, for example)… until you compare it with its competitors.
Slow horse, the better horse?
Netflix, the absolute queen, has 340 million customers, Prime Video 240 million (although it has a trick by being included in the Prime package), Disney+ 125 million, HBO Max 122 million, and even Paramount+ adds up to 79 million. Next to them, Apple TV+ has fallen very, very far behind. No matter its quality, talent, or innovation: at this point, the only thing that matters is that it is unable to take a step forward, separate itself from the junk, and demonstrate, with a tough marketing campaign, why they have come to stay.
Instead, the experts at the company have decided to trust that the public will arrive gradually and based on word of mouth, relying on that “If something is good, people will go to see it”. Not realizing that the phrase is more than worn out: if something is famous, people will go to see it. If it is well promoted, if it generates buzz, if it allows for discussion in various podcasts, if it has a presence on social media, if influencers are invited… Who knows? It might be saved. After all, it’s Apple! It should have hundreds of fans by its side just celebrating the name.
However, it is not happening, perhaps because, beyond the brand and the “wearable,” the symbol of prestige, Apple is not creatively interesting. Why would it be interesting? What has it done, beyond its ads, to prove that it is a decisive factor in hooking us to a series? Has that been the problem from the beginning, that it doesn’t have a background like HBO or Disney? I’m afraid we have little time left to find out, because even the patience of the richest company in the world has to run out at some point when they see that a billion dollars end up, yes or yes, in the nearest trash can repeatedly. Either they close and sell the series to the highest bidder, or we will see a 180-degree change.
