Quality over quantity has long been the mantra of Apple TV+, which provides a fraction of the programming offered by its rivals despite pouring billions into its content. Eddy Cue, Apple’s head of services who oversees the streaming effort, knows this strategy is a bit of gamble.
“We’re betting everything on the shows that we’re doing,” said Cue while speaking at this year’s SXSW on March 9 in conversation with Ben Stiller, director of the Apple original Severance. “The ones that we do, they all need to stick. Otherwise, we have nothing else,” Cue added.
This approach isn’t atypical to Apple, according to Cue, who has been with the company for 36 years and helped establish its iTunes and App stores. “If you put a lot of focus on doing a few things—not very many, but a few things really well—you can succeed in the way that we like,” he explained. “That’s why we don’t make a lot of products, we don’t make a lot of TV shows, because we don’t know how to do that in quantity and try to be the best.”
Whether this approach will pay off remains to be seen. Spending a reported $20 billion on original programming has allowed directors to take creative liberties on the pursuit of premium content. But, in part due to its small library compared to rival streamers, Apple TV+ content accounted for a mere 0.3 percent of U.S. television screen viewing last June.
Lumen in ‘Severance’ mirrors Apple
One of Apple TV+ most expensive bets is Severance, whose second season cost some $20 million per episode, according to Bloomberg. It’s also its most successful. As evidenced by the series fueling a 126 percent increase in Apple TV+ subscribers between Jan. 1 and Jan. 19 compared to the month prior, Apple’s bet on the dystopian drama is paying off. “If you keep doing this as well as you’re doing it, I think we’re going to be okay,” Cue told Stiller.
Severance explores the mysteries of Lumen, a large, omnipresent company with parallels to Apple that aren’t lost on Stiller. “People talk about, ‘Apple’s a huge corporation and Lumen’s a corporation,’” said the director, who noted that the iPhone maker’s aesthetic and intrigue made Severance “the perfect show to be on Apple.”
Stiller also lauded the creative freedom he receives, saying he’s “never once gotten a note or anything from Apple about anything we do.” Cue, for his part, said he’s such a fan of the show that he waits to watch its episodes weekly, despite having early access to the entire season.
When asked which Severance character he relates to the most, Cue chose Irving, a Lumen worker who starts out as a company loyalist before rebelling. “I love the fact that Irving’s all in,” said Cue. He doesn’t, however, share the same level of distaste towards Apple as Irving does towards his employer. “I’ve never wanted to burn it to the ground like he did,” said Cue.
