Some older TVs will get the
upgrade to AirPlay 2 to make
streaming Apple TV+ easy – and
many more will get the app.Apple TV+ very competitively, with a £4.99
monthly subscription sitting at a significantly
cheaper price point than that of Netflix. The
two services are poles apart in terms of their
respective libraries, certainly, but if Apple is able
to temper the pricing as its line-up grows, the
end of that free year may make it a compelling
subscription in its own right.
We also need to consider compatibility
here, and this is where the crystal ball gets
a little murky. Netflix, to keep harping on a
single example, is compatible with just about
everything. Its presence on games consoles like
the Xbox 360 was what helped it build into a
streaming giant in the first place, and you’ll now
find Netflix apps on virtually every device – if
you want to watch Netflix on something, you
can. We don’t yet know what Apple TV+ will offer.
Certainly it’ll be compatible with everything
AirPlay 2, and the TV app (as well as AirPlay 2
support) has popped up on many modern smartTVs in a show of unprecedented co-operation.
But if Apple were to tie its content to its own
protocols or refuse to make apps for platforms
like Windows or Android, it would massively limit
the service’s potential reach. There’s hope,
though. Apple’s own website states that the
company will be “bringing the Apple TV
experience to popular smart TVs, streaming
boxes, and streaming sticks” in autumn – that
would presumably include devices like Google’s
Chromecast (it’s already arrived on selected
Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices) and Apple
TV+ will be available through a web-based
interface (tv.apple.com) too. A best-case
scenario would be AirPlay 2 compatibility with all
of that hardware, but that’s a fairly fanciful idea.Subscribe or not?
Really, Apple is not about to cut off its nose
to spite its face, and it’s not in this to get into
any fights. In fact, it’s likely to cosy up to other
streaming services in order to use them as a
Trojan horse to push its own, with the recently
launched all-in-one TV app being the portal to
Apple TV+ and just about everything else. The
industry is cautiously receptive. Disney CEO Bob
Iger has suggested that the company’s Disney+
streaming service will be available through Apple
TV devices (including the service-combining TV
app) despite perceived competition between it
and Apple TV+. Netflix participation in the TV
app is not yet confirmed, though Prime Video
is on board, along with a number of broadcast
TV catch-up services.
It would be highly unlikely that Apple would
refuse any competitor access, particularly as it
enjoys a cut of subscriptions sold through its
own storefronts. It’s also worth bearing in mind
that Apple currently sells and rents a vast array
of TV shows and movies through the iTunes
Store, and will continue to do so through the
TV app. This does give a big hint as to why
the Apple TV+ lineup is entirely self-made.
So, should you subscribe to Apple TV+? We
can’t answer that, particularly considering that,
at the time of going to writing, the service has
only just launched. But there’s no doubt that
Apple is investing hard. If the service isn’t slick as
ice we’ll eat our hats, and there’s clearly a high
calibre of artistes involved across the board.
We’ll certainly be watching, and have more to
say as the service develops, but if you’d asked us
to review Netflix when transitioned from DVD
rentals to streaming we’d have had a very
different opinion to the one we have today.
We’d say give it a year.APPLE HOME Apple TV+
You can filter the TV app to show only kids’ content, but parental controls aren’t that deep yet.76 | MACFORMAT | DECEMBER 2019 Image credit: Samsung