Apple TV

Apple Inc. has been a laggard in the smart-home space, but a versatile new device in early development could change that. The company is working on a product that would combine an Apple TV set-top box with a HomePod speaker and include a camera for video conferencing through a connected TV and other smart-home functions, according to people familiar with the matter.

Big tech companies now exert huge influence over what stories get told. The message is clear: Be careful who you offend.

The long run of A Charlie Brown Christmas on over-the-air TV will continue, at least for this year. Apple — which earlier this year snapped up the rights to the classic holiday special, along with other parts of the Peanuts catalog — has cut a deal with PBS under which A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving will air on the public broadcaster. The deal ensures that viewers without access to Apple’s TV+ streaming platform can still see the two specials.

Stewart will host an hour-long, current affairs series that will explore topics of national interest as well as his advocacy work, the streaming service said Tuesday.

Apple plans to add bonus augmented reality content to its Apple TV+ streaming video service. The new feature is said to take aspects of scenes in a TV show, such as characters or objects, and display them on the viewer’s iPhone or iPad so they can be seen as if they existed in the user’s surrounding environment.

Apple Inc. plans to bundle access to CBS All Access and Showtime content at a discounted price for subscribers to its TV+ video service, according to people familiar with the plans. This is Apple’s first discounted bundle offering for video content with the TV+ service. Currently, users must subscribe to different content providers in the TV app on an à la carte basis.

Apple Inc.’s streaming video service has gained limited traction with consumers, and this could represent a cautious signal as the company moves away from hardware sales and toward services, according to Bernstein. Analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimated that fewer than 10 million consumers had opted for their free 12-month trial of Apple TV+, citing an analysis of the company’s first-quarter results.

Apple TV+ was one of the biggest product launches in years for Apple. But you wouldn’t know that from Apple’s just-released earnings. The streaming service, which launched last November after years of stops and starts, was not mentioned once in the tech giant’s first-quarter earnings report. During the subsequent earnings call with analysts, CEO Tim Cook dedicated only a brief mention of the new service when he said it was off to a “rousing start” but declined to disclose any actual subscriber numbers.

The streamer offered a peek at its upcoming shows at TCA, but its future is still cloudy.

A year ago at CES, TiVo demonstrated how popular OTT devices, such as Roku and Apple TV, could let users enjoy access the content on the TiVo DVR in their living room from other rooms in the house, or out of the home. But this week at CES 2020, Ted Malone, VP of products and services for TiVo, conceded that apps for OTT players are nowhere close to being deployed.

Walt Disney’s Disney Plus has amped up its marketing spend over the last month in preparation for its launch on Tuesday — spending $20.4 million on national/regional TV. And new competitor Apple TV+ isn’t slowing either.

Apple TV executive Kim Rozenfeld is departing the tech giant amid a restructuring of the executive ranks at its streaming platform. Rozenfeld is leaving his post as head of current scripted programming and documentary and unscripted content. He won’t being go far, however, as he has signed a first-look deal with Apple for his company, Half Full Productions.

Apple Inc. plans to roll out the Apple TV+ movie and TV subscription service for $9.99 a month by November, part of a drive to reach $50 billion in service sales by 2020, sources say.

The new capabilities available Monday come ahead of Apple’s plan to offer its own original shows, including ones from Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg. Those shows will be part of an Apple TV Plus subscription coming later this year for a yet-to-be disclosed price.

Locast, the free over-the-air broadcast TV streaming service, said it has added iPad, Apple TV and Android TV to the devices/platforms on which it is now available. That is in addition to Apple iOS, Android, Roku and Hopper, as well as various browser platforms. Locast, which launched last year, does not have to get a TV station’s permission.

Netflix, the world’s dominant streaming service, will not make its TV shows and movies available through Apple Inc’s upcoming video offering, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said on Monday. “We prefer to let our customers watch our content on our service,” Hastings told reporters at the company’s offices in Hollywood. “We have chosen not to integrate with their service.”