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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

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Apple reportedly ups TV spending by $5 billion to compete with Amazon and Netflix [theverge.com]

Apple has reportedly committed an eye-popping $5 billion dollars more to its original video content budget in a bid to better compete with Amazon, Disney, HBO, Netflix, and Hulu, according to a new report from the Financial Times [ft.com].

The company had originally set aside $1 billion [theverge.com] for former Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg to court well-known creators and Hollywood stars to its platform. According to the FT, that number has jumped to $6 billion as more shows have moved through production and budgets have ballooned.

One production — a high-profile comedy-drama about morning television featuring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carrell called The Morning Show [theverge.com] — has cost Apple hundreds of millions of dollars, the FT reports. Separately, Bloomberg reports [bloomberg.com] that Apple is spending $300 million on just the first two seasons of the show.

That makes it more expensive on a per episode basis than the final season of HBO's Game of Thrones [fortune.com], which enjoyed a budget of roughly $15 million per episode and ranks as the most expensive season of television ever.

Also at 9to5Mac [9to5mac.com] and Cord Cutters News [cordcuttersnews.com].

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