TV in 3: Apple’s New CEO, Hollywood’s Big Questions
As John Ternus takes over, agents, execs and creatives ask what’s next for the spendy, still-unprofitable streamer
I wrote about the open letter opposing the Para-WBD merger that’s fraying Hollywood relationships, reported on how A24 is reshaping TV and dug into what’s taking Peter Friedlander so long to set TV strategy at Amazon. I’m lesley.goldberg@theankler.com
Welcome back to TV in 3, where I’m mixing up the format again for some big industry news (man, there seems to be a lot of it these days) as Apple this week announced a new CEO who will take the reins from Tim Cook. Hollywood has lots of questions about the tech giant’s next chief, John Ternus, a hardware guy with no significant ties to the entertainment industry, and I’ll dig into the three most pressing ones below.
But remember: Back when he first steered Apple into Hollywood in 2017 with Apple TV+, Cook wasn’t too familiar with entertainment industry players or mores either. Nearly a decade later, it was Cook who broke the news (via a social media post) when the highly anticipated fourth season of Ted Lasso began production last July.
Since launching in late 2019 with The Morning Show, Dickinson and For All Mankind, Apple TV (the “+” was subtracted last October) has spent billions establishing itself as a home for star-studded prestige original TV series and films including Severance, Slow Horses, F1 and CODA, the latter of which made the iPhone maker the first streamer to take home the coveted Oscar for best picture.
Now, after a tenure that has included the launch of Apple Services — which encompasses the company’s TV, music, arcade, books, podcasts and other entertainment options and has become a $100 billion business — Cook will segue to a new post as executive chairman come Sept. 1. In the meantime, he’ll help newly appointed Ternus, the California native who first joined Apple as a design engineer in 2001, segue into the company’s top job.
Hollywood has little clarity on how Ternus, 50, will handle Apple’s entertainment ambitions — but that hasn’t stopped the industry from gaming it out. In fact, across conversations with agents, executives and producers this week, three questions kept coming up again and again.
Today I break down the answers and then some:
Who really controls Apple TV inside Apple right now
Whether it even needs to make money
If Ternus will keep funding its spend-heavy strategy
Apple TV’s biggest flaw — and why Ternus won’t likely tackle it
The Services division’s soaring growth under Eddy Cue, who also was rumored as a candidate for CEO
Two ways it can scale — and the risks baked into both
Why Apple is making a CEO change from a position of strength