The buzz around Apple TV+ [AAPL] continues after the company announced a $4.99 price point for the service Tuesday, which undercuts the barrage of streaming services coming to the market.
“When they made the $4.99 price,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives tells YFiAM, “that was really [Tim] Cook taking the gloves off. It's a major shot off the bow at Netflix [NFLX], Disney [DIS] and others.”
But the big question remains, where will the content come from?
Apple’s Content Arms Race
We know Apple has several original shows in the pipeline: “The Morning Show” starring Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carell, “Dickinson” with Hailee Steinfeld, and “For All Mankind,” an alternate history about the space race.
At Apple’s big event Tuesday, where it also announced new iPhones, Apple Watch and iPads, CEO Tim Cook also announced a fourth show, “See” starring Jason Momoa.
“It’s a content arms race,” Ives said. “Right now, Apple has built a house, they’ve priced it accordingly. They need to fill it with content and we think that’s going to be the next trick up the sleeve for Cook in terms of bigger M&A.”
“Big Acquisition” in Apple’s Future
“We think a big acquisition is on the horizon,” Ives said.
On his list of acquisitions (in order); A24 Studio, Lionsgate, Viacom/CBS [CBS], Sony Pictures, MGM Studios, Netflix, and then a potential gaming publisher (that could be incorporated into Apple’s streaming service or a separate gaming subscription service) as a wild card.
Ives says the upside to Apple and its investors remain high.
“We continue to believe this is the star of the next chapter of growth,” Ives said. “The one thing that is missing is content and that’s why we do think organically they are going to significantly step up content.”
Tracey Marx Bernstein is a senior producer for Yahoo Finance.
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