Apple TV+, caught between the prestige of its shows and multi-million losses

When the Television Academy announced the nominations for its awards on July 15, which will be presented on September 14, one platform stood out above the rest: Apple TV+. It didn’t have the most nominations (that title went to HBO Max with 142), but its 81 nominations attracted a lot of attention. What’s more, this year, if predictions hold true, it could win best drama (Severance) and best comedy (The Studio). It would be the first time a single platform has won both major awards.

Among the 81 nominations Apple TV+ racked up this year are 27 for Severance, 23 for The Studio, seven for Shrinking, five for Slow Horses, and four for Presumed Innocent, among others. The Studio has tied The Bear’s all-time record as the comedy with most nominations in a single year.

This excellent showing in the Emmy nominations is even more striking when compared to the platform’s bottom line and the popularity of its titles. It’s a subscription service that, according to a March article by The Information, loses more than $1 billion a year. The tech giant invests around $4.5 billion a year in content and has around 45 million subscribers on its platform (although it’s unknown how many of those accounts are free or included in packages with other services).

A Bloomberg article from a year ago claimed that Apple TV+ generated fewer views in a month than Netflix does in a single day. While its shows are critically acclaimed and receive awards attention, its streaming service only accounts for 0.2% of total television viewing in the United States.

It seems Apple TV+ has established itself as the heir to the prestige television pioneered by HBO. But will that prestige, good reviews, and awards compensate for its lack of profitability? Although company executives have already called for spending restraint (as have other video-on-demand companies), the platform, which only offers its own productions on its paid service, continues to premiere and produce at a good pace.

Its star series have been renewed, and there will be more episodes of Severance, The Studio, The Morning Show, Slow Horses and Shrinking, among others. Also coming back is its first major audience and awards hit, Ted Lasso, which is already filming, this time in the United States, for what will be its fourth season. The return of the series starring and co-created by Jason Sudeikis will focus on a women’s soccer team and will feature most of the original cast, including Hannah Waddingham, Brett Goldstein, Juno Temple, and Brendan Hunt.

In addition, Apple TV+ has several strong new releases in the pipeline, many of them with A-list stars, which confirms that the cuts will take some time to take effect. It has three new releases planned for August alone: on August 1, the premiere of Chief of War, created by and starring Jason Momoa about Native Hawaiians in the 18th century; on August 6, the second season of the comedy Platonic, starring Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne, will arrive; and on August 23, the third season of the science fiction story Invasion, a genre that the platform has featured extensively in titles such as Foundation, Silo, and For All Mankind.

Autumn will see also the arrival of the fourth season of The Morning Show (September 17) and the fifth season of Slow Horses (September 24). The latter, starring Gary Oldman, is guaranteed to run until at least a seventh season. On September 26, the thriller The Savant premieres, starring Jessica Chastain as an investigator infiltrating online extremist groups, and Emma Thompson and Ruth Wilson star in the crime drama Down Cemetery Road (October 29).

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