Apple TV Channels and Apple TV+ are Apple’s subscription video streaming services – AppleTV 4 Jailbreak (appletv4jailbreak.com)

Apple hasn’t been entirely secretive about its ambitions to offer a subscription video service, but it also hasn’t revealed its master plan — until today. As the star attractions of the company’s It’s Show Time media event in Cupertino, Apple TV Channels and Apple TV+ were just announced to an audience of journalists, celebrities, and production partners.

As was widely rumored before today’s event, the new services represent a combination of Apple-developed original content and bundled third-party channels. All of the content will be accessible from a redesigned version of the Apple TV app found on Apple TV devices and iOS.

Apple TV Channels will include content from HBO, Showtime, Starz, Cinemax, CBS All Access, Epix, MTV Hits, History Channel Vault, Tastemade, the Lifetime Movie Club, Shudder, and many other channels. The redesigned Apple TV app has a Netflix-style interface, but with an easier means of adding new content — two clicks to add a new channel — and purchase movies, without having the exit the TV app and move into the iTunes Store.

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Apple will launch the new Apple TV Channels in May with a software update to the Apple TV 4K. Additionally, the Apple TV app will be coming to the Mac this fall for the first time.

Better yet, you won’t need an iPad, iPhone, or Mac to watch Apple’s streaming videos. In addition to the company’s own Apple TV devices, select Samsung Smart TVs will include the Apple TV app — a development largely revealed at this year’s CES. LG, Sony, and Vizio will follow after the spring, with Roku and Amazon Fire TV as well. The new Apple TV app will work in over 100 countries.

Apple also announced its own original content service called Apple TV+, with Steven Spielberg, Sofia Coppola, Reese Witherspoon, J.J. Abrams, Ron Howard, and M. Night Shyamalan among the luminaries providing a pre-recorded introduction to the creative partnership. Celebrities such as Chris Evans of Captain America fame were also in the audience during the official reveal.

Apple has invested upwards of $1 billion in developing TV shows and movies for the service, notably including partnerships with:

• Talk show host Oprah Winfrey for “original programs that embrace her incomparable ability to connect with audiences around the world.”
• Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell for two seasons of a drama about an aging TV morning show anchor.
• Amblin Entertainment for a reboot of Steven Spielberg’s Twilight Zone-inspired 1980s TV show Amazing Stories.
• Battlestar Galactica reboot master Ronald D. Moore, for a sci-fi show called For All Mankind.
• Celebrated superhero film producer David S. Goyer, for an…

https://venturebeat.com/2019/03/25/apple-tv-channels-is-apples-subscription-video-streaming-service/