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Tag: showtime

  • Facebook users will now see reminders and showtimes in movie ads

    Facebook users will now see reminders and showtimes in movie ads

    Facebook has just started to roll out two new ad solutions aimed at film studios that want to increase ticket sales, as well as people who want to find movies they want to see. The new ad solutions, movie reminder, and movie showtime are now available for all film studios in the United States and the UK.

    But what does that mean for consumers? It’s quite simple, if you discover a film that you like months before its release, you will probably need a reminder for when the movie will hit theaters.

    With movie reminder ads, when you see an ad for a film in your News Feed, you will be able to tap an Interested button to receive a reminder in your Facebook notifications when the movie hits theaters. The notification will send you to the movie detail page on Facebook where you will be able to see showtimes and purchase tickets if this feature is available.

    Movie showtime ads for films that are already in theaters is another new feature rolling out today. If you’re interested in a certain movie that appears in an ad on your News Feed, you can tap a Get Showtimes button to go right to the Facebook movie details page to learn more about where and when to see the film.

  • Apple Music is rapidly growing in popularity on Android

    Apple Music is rapidly growing in popularity on Android

    Apple unveiled a ton of interesting stuff at a (Hollywood) star-studded event yesterday, but much to the disappointment of iPod Touch fans and potential AirPower buyers, not a single hardware announcement was made on stage in the Steve Jobs Theater during this “Show Time” shindig. While Apple’s focus on the so-called “services” business has sharply increased over the past year or so, it’s safe to assume the company’s TV+, News+, and Arcade platforms wouldn’t have happened were it not for the success of Apple Music.

    Released back in 2015 in more than 100 countries around the world, the music streaming service quickly emerged as the primary challenger to Spotify’s throne. Almost four years later, the global subscriber gap between the two remains pretty large, but Apple Music continues to make great strides in the US, as well as on other platforms apart from iOS.
    After expanding its support to Alexa-powered smart speakers, the service recently crossed an interesting milestone on Android, according to Sensor Tower estimates. Even though the app isn’t exactly well-reviewed in Google’s Play Store, with a mediocre 3.5-star average score based on over 280,000 ratings, a whopping 40 million Android users in total have reportedly tried out Apple Music since its 2015 debut. That’s not bad for something that’s only gained Android tablet compatibility a couple of months back.
    What’s perhaps even more impressive is that quarterly Android installs have apparently begun to surge again after a temporary but steep decline in late 2017 and early 2018. In fact, Q1 2019 could be Apple Music’s best-ever three-month period in terms of Google Play downloads, which are expected to reach 3.8 million by the end of March. That would represent an increase of half a million downloads from the final quarter of last year and an incredible 1.5 million more installs than back in Q2 2018.
    Obviously, it’s unclear how many of these downloads typically end up converting into long-term paid subscriptions, but that figure is also up, so there’s definitely a correlation between the two, even when not taking iOS usage and install numbers into consideration.
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  • Apple takes on Netflix and cable with TV+ streaming service

    Apple takes on Netflix and cable with TV+ streaming service

    Hours before the “It’s show time” event, Apple began streaming a Car Play footage of someone driving from Los Angeles to Cupertino, in a not-so-subtle hint that we are about to see a lot of Hollywood honchos arriving for the announcement of its new Apple TV+ video service against formidable competition. Existing cable packs plus original content – it marks the first time Apple is jumping into a new and established industry in, well, forever. –

    The Apple-goes-Hollywood move is just the next in a long line of reorientations of Apple as a service company, concocted a few years back when CEO Tim Cook started to prepare for the inevitable commoditization of the bread-and-butter iPhone product. Apple’s CEO Tim Cook loves to brag at conference calls with investors that the revenue and profits from its “services” business is growing leaps and bounds, far outstripping the revenue growth in the iPhone department. The App Store alone is now a Fortune 100 company by itself, raking in more than, say, the whole McDonalds franchise.

    On the hook for billions of losses, however, after streaming services like Netflix or Spotify balked or circumvented the 15%-30% cut Apple takes from subscriptions sold via the App Store, the team from Cupertino decided to futureproof its revenue stream from services by taking the fight directly to the competition. Last year, streaming subscriptions outpaced cable, and Apple just went in, announcing its own TV+ video service.

    Apple TV+ streaming and Channels service price, features, markets, and platforms

    Instead of outing an actual TV set, Apple now aims to become an alternative to cable by mixing shows from renowned names like HBO or Showtime with dozens of its own TV+ original series, all from the comfort of the new Apple TV app, online or offline. With the new Channels service there, Apple will bundle your existing subscriptions, and personalize and curate the shows you might like, gleaning from the subscriptions or preferences you already have shown by renting iTunes movies and TV shows. Those will now also be folded into the new Apple TV app, coming in May.
    The Apple TV channels will sport such juggernauts like HBO, Starz, SHOWTIME, CBS All Access, Smithsonian Channel, EPIX, Tastemade, Noggin and some new ones as MTV Hits, with more down the pipe. All of this can be accessed within one app – Apple TV – no separate logins any more.

    TV+ and Channels will be available from the new Apple TV app

    The service would be reaching 100+ global markets and will be available not only on Apple iOS devices but also coming to the Mac, Roku streamers, and even Samsung, LG, Sony or Vizio smart TVs. How much? Well, separate subscriptions for HBO or Showtime will run you $9.99/month each, and you can subscribe with a single click. The Apple TV+ release date is scheduled for some time in the fall, with an “ad-free” price yet to be announced.

    With an installed base of more than a billion potential viewers who are used to paying for media, Apple could immediately become the next big thing on the trendy “what to watch” block. Unlike Netflix, however, whose stratospheric rise is fueled by copious amounts of debt, Apple reportedly took a more measured approach, earmarking “just” a billion for testing the original content streaming waters. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, piled on today:

    We’re honored that the absolute best lineup of storytellers in the world — both in front of and behind the camera — are coming to Apple TV+. We’re thrilled to give viewers a sneak peek of Apple TV+ and cannot wait for them to tune in starting this fall. Apple TV+ will be home to some of the highest quality original storytelling that TV and movie lovers have seen yet.

    That’s not to say that the team from Cupertino is not ambitious, though – Eddy Cue is on record saying that they want to acquire or produce shows on the level of Game of Thrones, and, knowing Apple’s money, they could very well do so. For comparison, HBO spends two billion on original programming, and Apple could easily double or triple the amount invested if the shoe fits.

    Netflix is way ahead with $11 billion earmarked for spending on own shows and content this year, though there is a lot of fluff in it, while Apple usually takes a more targeted approach when it comes to quality, regardless of what one might think about shows like Planet of the Apps. In any case, it will have way fewer movies and TV shows than the rest of the competition at launch, though, as you can see from the stats below, having the most content doesn’t make for the most popular such service.

    Apple TV+ new original shows list at launch

    Apple has already poached plenty of entertainment industry names, too, so it finally seems bent on building a proper media empire. Here are all the shows Apple said its streaming service will be launching with:
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  • No original shows at launch for Apple TV service

    No original shows at launch for Apple TV service

    Apple’s TV service is still a no show, but that’s probably going to change very soon. The Cupertino-based company plans to use the March 25 event to outline how it will take on rivals like Amazon and Netflix, a new Bloomberg report claims. While Apple is gearing up to launch its TV service, the company needs to sign deals with Pay-TV programmers like HBO, Showtime, and Starz, which in return must decide whether or not Apple is either a threat or a potential partner.

    If everything goes well, Apple TV will offer HBO and Showtime TV shows at launch, but no original content, people familiar with the matter claim. Apple’s own movies and TV shows are still in development and might not be ready until later this year at the earliest. Although Apple may take the wraps off its TV service this month, it’s almost certain that it will not be actually available until fall.

    Another important thing to note is that Apple plans to integrate the TV service into the iPhone, iPad and set-top box’s TV app, which will offer two types of content: Apple original shows or content bought/funded by the company, as well as content from third-party media companies like HBO and Showtime.

    The same report mentions that the first partnerships are expected to be closed as early as Friday, but since the talks are still going on, it’s impossible to predict what will happen.