Apple Plans to Launch Its ‘Netflix for News’ Service Next Month
- Mehedi Hassan
- Feb 13, 2019
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Apple’s much talked about news subscription service could be going public soon. The company has been working on a news subscription service that works similar to Netflix for a while, and it’s getting ready to launch the service next month.
BuzzFeed reported on Tuesday that Cupertino is planning to hold a services-focused event for on March 25, where the company will talk about its new services. The major focus is likely going to be on this new news subscription service, and it’s unclear if the company plans on discussing its upcoming streaming service that will go head to head with Netflix.
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Apple has been pushing its services business recently, following declines on iPhone sale numbers. The company is reportedly in talks with major publications for the news subscription service, though it’s likely going to have some trouble getting publications to join the service. According to the WSJ, Apple is reportedly asking for a 50% cut of revenue from publishers. The service will likely be available for $9.99 a month to users.
Publications would have to give away 50% of their revenue to Apple, and the amount of revenue they generate will depend on how much time readers spend reading their content on the service. 50% is a huge cut for the journalism industry, so it’s not surprising to see Apple facing issues getting publications to sign-up for the service. Furthermore, the WSJ reports that publishers are concerned about access to user data that are crucial for their own marketing efforts.
Apple is unlikely to launch new hardware at the event, however. So if you were like me and waiting for the new AirPods or even the new iPad Mini, you are probably going to be disappointed.
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Conversation 40 comments
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provision l-3
<blockquote><em><a href="#404519">In reply to Daekar:</a></em></blockquote><p>I'm curious how you define worthless. </p><p><br></p><p>I'm going to assume, maybe incorrectly, that Apple will roll this out on iPhone, iPad and Macs since all of them currently have the Apple News app. Apple's currently user base across those products is 1.3 billion. It would only take 3-5% of those people to sing up to turn the subscription into about a 5 billion dollar revenue stream annually. </p><p><br></p><p>Obviously adding additional platforms and a web based option would open that up more but given the size of the existing user base it isn't inconceivable for Apple to produce healthy revenue stream on a service using the base alone. </p>
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provision l-3
<blockquote><em><a href="#404709">In reply to DataMeister:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>So first off, describing an active user base of 1.3 billion as "tiny" is laughable. </p><p><br></p><p>Second, why does it matter if someone else has a larger audience? This isn't a zero sum game. More than one company can make money doing the same thing. </p><p><br></p><p>Lastly, having a larger audience doesn't equate to more revenue. Android has three times the audience of iOS and Google Play makes about half of the revenue of the App Store. </p>
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dontbe evil
<p>apple fans will love to be milked from this apple service</p>