Apple has been spending billions of dollars on its Hollywood projects for years in an attempt to catch up with industry leader Netflix. According to Bloomberg, the company has already spent $20 billion on the production of movies and TV series for Apple TV+. It looks like the management will start monitoring budgets more closely this year.
Apple's senior vice president of services Eddy Cue is demanding that internal studio heads Zach Van Amburgh and Jamie Ehrlicht more closely monitor project budgets in an effort to make the Apple TV+ service more stable.
Apple invests heavily in individual projects compared to larger streaming companies like Netflix. Apple has spent more than $500 million on films directed by Martin Scorsese (Full Moon Killers), Ridley Scott (Napoleon), and Matthew Vaughn (The Argyle).
While the company's original projects get a lot of attention during award seasons, on average, Netflix has more viewers per day than Apple TV+ does per month.
According to Nielsen, Apple TV+ accounts for 0.2% of all TV viewing in the US, while Netflix accounts for 8%. In an attempt to win back Netflix viewers, Apple has started canceling its projects more often. If a series is not watched immediately, it will not be renewed.
The company is also licensing more content from competitors to reduce its reliance on original series, and has postponed production of shows like The Foundation in an effort to stay on budget.
It is unclear how many people actually watch Apple's original shows, as the company does not share the numbers even with the production teams.