Apple’s prudishness stands in the way of new video services
The Wall Street Journal got some more information about the progress of Apple’s streaming video on demand service. The story that Apple was busy scoring its own content for that service last year already passed but we are now more than a year later and not much is known yet . That has a reason: it does not come up with that own content yet. The biggest stumbling block? Tim Cook.
Cook interferes with the programming of the video service and thus also with the purchase of shows that may be shown on it. The problem, however, is that Cook has a holier-than-Disney approach when it comes to series and films. For example, he would be the first version of Dr. Dre’s series Vital Signs have been rejected because there is too much sex, violence and fence language. If you are going to make a story based on Dre’s life, the chances of those three things are one hundred percent, so that’s a bit strange.
Less content, less interesting
That family-friendly approach, however, contains a lot more content, because nowadays it is certainly not strange on streaming video services to have 18 + series that are not averse to just the things what Cook is not waiting for. That makes the pond from which Apple can fish for series considerably smaller and that is going to ensure that the service according to the anonymous sources of the Times not roll out early next year, but only later.
It is probably also going to make sure that a lot of people will not be very interested in the films and series that will be on Apple Video (or whatever the service is called). Video content for adults is extremely popular and precisely because nobody has to take a leaf on the Netflix, HBO or even Videoland you get series that are rawer and sometimes even more realistic than what we looked at ten or twenty years ago.
Apple’s approach is understandable, but chances are that Cook’s prudence will do more damage to the service on the service than bad souls are damaged by any exposure to a chest, ‘fuck’ or shooting. Of course Apple wants to be seen as a safe, family-friendly company, but you can also exaggerate it.