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What Apple TV+ Needs to Become a Big Player in Streaming Video
The service has developed some hit shows, but needs a proper library to become a successful streaming service
Out of the gate, Apple TV+ resembled its hit TV show Ted Lasso; that is to say — what is this thing and who is it for? If you haven’t seen Ted Lasso yet (and you should; it’s great), the premise is this: an American football coach is brought in under somewhat misleading circumstances to coach a Premier League team. The character of Ted Lasso originated in a commercial in 2013 for NBC to advertise its new sports rights and hinged on Jason Sudekis’s likeability and that “football” is used by folks on both sides of the Atlantic to describe two very different sports.
Based on that pitch, Ted Lasso sounds inessential yet that charming, funny, and heartfelt series became a breakout hit of 2020. The show has become arguably the streamer’s biggest hit (metrics can be iffy, but a two season renewal and plenty of air time in Apple’s Summer 2021 teaser certainly suggests something is going right). The same could be said for Apple TV+ — out of the gate it felt off. The Morning Show failed to become the House of Cards-level hit Apple desired despite its starpower and buzz for the service focused more on TV development snafus and shuttered release…
