Apple Invests in Original Podcasts With the Potential to Adapt into TV+ Shows
Apple has stepped up its investment in original podcast content by signing an agreement with Pulitzer Prize-winning production company Futuro Studios, Bloomberg reports.
The deal with Futuro Studios, maker of the criminal-justice series "Suave," stipulates that Apple will fund development and production of podcasts, and then have the first option to turn them into a film or TV show for its Apple TV+ service.
Apple has ramped up its podcast production output over the past couple of years, generating spinoffs of some of its original television and movie content, such as the "For All Mankind" podcast, but also seeking to purchase original podcast programs that could tie into future TV+ shows.
Apple has discussed similar arrangements with other podcast production studios and spent up to $10 million on the push so far, according to Bloomberg. Apple has already financed a handful of popular podcasts, including true crime series "Hooked" and "The Line," with several tied in some way to its TV shows.
Apple is said to be using the podcast investment strategy as a relatively risk-free method of gauging interest in the material to determine whether it could become the foundation for a video series. The approach means Apple avoids having to spend potentially significantly more money to acquire rights to an established podcast in order to turn it into original video programming.
Apple's low-key plans contrast with Spotify's high-spending strategy of acquiring already-popular podcasts and making them exclusive to its streaming service. Spotify has been making inroads in the podcasting market over the course of the last few years, ramping up its original podcast offerings and making major acquisitions, as well as scoring key deals such as the rights to the popular Joe Rogan Experience podcast.
Related Stories
Apple today debuted "Hooked," a true-crime podcast, seemingly as the company's first wholly standalone original podcast series.
While Apple has already begun its venture into original podcasts with the likes of "Oprah's Book Club" and "For All Mankind: The Official Podcast," Hooked is the first Apple Original podcast that is seemingly not tied to an Apple TV+ series in any way.
"The Line" ...
Apple today announced a Podcasts update for creators, introducing follower metrics and other features that are designed to help podcast makers track their audience and monetize their shows.
Under the Analytics tab in Apple Podcasts Connect, creators will be able to view followers per show and track followers across shows. The interface will display new followers gained over the last week,...
Apple's paid podcast subscription service has been seeing notable growth, increasing more than 300 percent since June 2021. The metric was shared today by an Apple spokesperson who spoke to Digiday about a new Dateline subscription podcast offering.
More than 25 percent of the top 100 shows from the "Top Shows" chart offer a subscription option more than a year after subscriptions first...
MacRumors has launched a podcast – "The MacRumors Show," featuring discussion about all of the latest news and rumors from the world of Apple, and the first episode is available now.
Supplementing our daily coverage here on MacRumors, the podcast takes a fresh look at the latest news and rumors. In this first episode, Dan, Hartley, and Sami talk through Apple's product launches in 2021 and...
Productivity guru Thomas Frank joins us on The MacRumors Show podcast this week to evaluate the state of the iPad Pro and Mac as productivity tools.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos Thomas is a YouTuber, podcaster, and content creator best known for his personal development video essays, Notion tutorials and templates, and Skillshare courses. We discuss the iPad...
On this week's episode of The MacRumors Show, MacRumors editor Hartley Charlton and videographer Dan Barbera talk in depth about their experiences using the new Apple Watch Ultra and the AirPods Pro 2, both of which launched last week.
Listen to The MacRumors Show via apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Pocket Casts, Castro, Google Podcasts, or subscribe by copying our RSS feed directly into...
Apple-focused YouTuber and podcaster Luke Miani joins us this week on The MacRumors Show podcast to talk through some of our immediate reactions after Apple's "Far out" event.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos We discuss all of Apple's major announcements, including the Apple Watch Series 8, second-generation Apple Watch SE, Apple Watch Ultra, second-generation...
With the launch of iOS 15.1, Apple introduced a new prompt for the Podcasts app that asks customers to rate it, and as it turns out, confusion over what's being rated has led to an artificially inflated App Store rating for the Podcasts app.
Prior to the October 25 launch of iOS 15.1, the Podcasts app had 1.8 stars and plenty of negative reviews from customers unhappy with the design of the...
Popular Stories
The iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max introduce some major improvements in camera technology, adding a 48-megapixel lens and low-light improvements across all lenses with the new Photonic Engine. We've spent the last week working on an in-depth comparison that pits the new iPhone 14 Pro Max against the prior-generation iPhone 13 Pro Max to see just how much better the iPhone 14 Pro Max can be.
Subscrib ...
The Wall Street Journal's Joanna Stern recently traveled to Michigan to test Apple's new crash detection feature on the iPhone 14 and Apple Watch Ultra. In response, Apple provided some additional information about how the feature works.
Stern recruited Michael Barabe to crash his demolition derby car with a heavy-duty steel frame into two unoccupied vehicles parked in a junkyard — a 2003...
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Pro models bring over a longstanding Mac feature, but the setting to enable it is off by default.
The feature, which is actually a new accessibility option, allows the iPhone to play a startup chime like the Mac. When enabled, the sound comes alongside a new shutdown chime.
The Mac has featured a startup chime since 1987's Macintosh II, and the iconic "bong"...
The third beta of iOS 16.1 that was released earlier this week expands the Adaptive Transparency feature introduced with the second-generation AirPods Pro to the original AirPods Pro.
As noted on Reddit, first-generation AirPods Pro owners who also have the AirPods beta software will now see an "Adaptive Transparency" toggle in the AirPods section of the Settings app. The 5A304A beta...
Thursday September 29, 2022 9:08 am PDT by
Sami FathiOne of the biggest new features in iOS 16 is a completely redesigned iPhone Lock Screen. The new Lock Screen is entirely customizable, letting you change the colors and fonts, add widgets and new wallpapers, and more to make your iPhone uniquely yours. Of course, even before iOS 16, you could customize your Lock Screen with a wallpaper of your choice. iOS 16 takes the Lock Screen wallpaper...
Thursday September 29, 2022 12:38 pm PDT by
Juli CloverTony Blevins, Apple's vice president of procurement, is set to depart the company after he made a crude comment about his profession in a recent TikTok video, reports Bloomberg.
Blevins was in a video by TikTok creator Daniel Mac, who was doing a series on the jobs of people he spotted with expensive cars. After seeing Blevins in an expensive Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, Mac asked Blevins what ...
Thursday September 29, 2022 7:26 am PDT by
Sami FathiSpeaking at Università Degli Studi di Napoli Federico II in Naples, Italy, Apple CEO Tim Cook said that not too long from today, people will wonder how they led a life without augmented reality, stressing the "profound" impact it will have on the not so distant future. At the university, Cook was awarded an Honorary Degree in Innovation and International Management and also sat down for a...
This week's best Apple deals focus on the AirPods Pro, AirPods Pro 2, and M2 MacBook Air, including numerous all-time low prices on these devices. You'll also find up to 50 percent off discounts on Anker and Eufy accessories on Amazon.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us...
Apple CEO Tim Cook has been touring Europe this week, sitting down for interviews with various media publications. Augmented reality has been a running theme in Cook's discussions, and it is a topic he brought up again in an interview with Dutch publication Bright, which is part of RTL News.
"I think AR is a profound technology that will affect everything," Cook said, echoing comments from...
Apple is developing new iPad Pro, Mac, and Apple TV models, and at least some of these products will be released in October, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. However, Gurman continues to believe that Apple is unlikely to hold an event this month.
In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman said "the big iPhone 14 unveiling last month was probably it for Apple in 2022 in...
Top Rated Comments
For example, I subscribed to Prime to watch The Boys and it wasn't published as available in our region even though Amazon owns exclusive global distribution rights for it. :rolleyes:
It is extremely frustrating and really turns me off Apple that they can't be bothered to make it work smoothly on their own expensive hardware such as my M1 MacBook Air. It works better on my Samsung phone than on my Mac. Simply no excuse for that.
Heaven forfend the horror of the notion that they might go without their bingewatch of Game of Thrones or whatever.