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Apple TV+ (AAPL) delivered quite the performance at the 73rd Primetime Emmy Awards — securing 10 total wins and nearly sweeping the comedy category with its breakout series "Ted Lasso." Yet it remains to be seen whether that will translate into a new user boom for the fledgling streaming platform.
The show has been a particularly bright spot for the tech giant, which has struggled to compete against big players like Disney+ (DIS) and Netflix (NFLX) — in addition to converting free trial users who signed up through a complimentary promotional offer after purchasing Apple hardware.
Apple's platform "needs to get the traction. They haven't gotten that yet [but its Emmy wins] are a step in the right direction," Manhattan Venture Partners' Santosh Rao told Yahoo Finance during a recent interview.
But the analyst warned that "there's still a long way to go" explaining how Netflix, Disney and others are spending a hefty amount of cash on original content — unlike the 2-year old Apple TV+.
Content wars heat up among Apple, Netflix, and Disney
Just this week, Netflix announced that it will be purchasing British novelist Roald Dahl's entire catalogue, which includes childhood classics from "Matilda" to "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."
Although financial details have not yet been disclosed, multiple reports believe this to be one of Netflix’s biggest purchases to date.
And this week, the company announced part 2 of its pandemic smash hit "Tiger King." The controversial series will roll out as part of Netflix's larger true crime slate, which will include four new docuseries and films set through early 2022.
Yet, Apple TV+ doesn't appear to have that same content spending strategy. Rather, "Apple's strategy is more quality over quantity," Rao noted. "They need to produce more hits [like 'Ted Lasso'] and across other genres too, so there's still a lot of work to do but 'Lasso's' success definitely helps pull people in."
Apple is looking to go narrow and deep with its content...Santosh Rao, Manhattan Venture Partners' Head of Research
Rao went on to say that Apple TV+ is not competing "on a mass scale" with the other platforms. Alternatively, the service is looking to "go narrow and deep with high class stars" from Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston to Paul Rudd and Tom Hanks.
Yet the high-stakes content wars make it hard to imagine a platform that will be able to survive a crowded landscape without massive franchises like the Marvel Universe — or big titles like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" — let alone a platform that lacks the content quantity that consumers seem to crave.