In 2022, Apple won an Oscar. The company behind the Mac and iPhone made a splash by winning Best Picture with the indie darling CODA, a remake of a French-Belgian film about the only hearing member of a family with a struggling fishing business.
It was created with a modest budget reported around $10 million, and yet despite its relatively humble beginnings, for a time the movie was a showpiece for one of the worldâs most valuable companies and its fledgling push into the realms of film and television.
The success of CODA is indicative of Appleâs streaming service as a whole. While it earned accolades and respect, it wasnât exactly a mainstream hit. Awards donât necessarily equal viewership. And while Apple TV has had several acclaimed shows and films, it hasnât yet translated to a major piece of the streaming market.
Since it debuted in 2019, Apple TV has largely been a curiosity, an effort focused more on prestige than scale and profits. While other streamers duke it out for market share, Apple has seemed content on using its streaming service to bolster its image. The result is that for years the service had few major hits, and has also been plagued by a dearth of content compared to its competitors. Unlike Netflix or Disney, Apple hasnât tried to boost its library by bidding on the streaming rights to sure-thing hits like Friends or The Office. Instead it has focused primarily on original programming you canât get anywhere else.
It took several years of more misses than hits to get where Apple is now: a comparatively small streaming service that nonetheless boasts a solid lineup. For TV that has primarily meant prestige dramas, particularly in the realm of science fiction, with splashy adaptations like the…