Apple Music, HBO Europe to Offer Original Video Content

It seems it's not just OTT video services that can't stop investing in original content; now music services are signing up as well.

Apple Music is reportedly planning to launch no less than ten original video series over the course of 2017, according to a report from Bloomberg. These new series would join its original video series, Carpool Karaoke, and the more recent Planet of the Apps.

At the Code Media conference earlier this year, Apple had talked about adding video to Apple Music, as a key differentiator. The company also first showed Planet of the Apps at the event, a show where contestants pitch celebrities Will.i.am, Jessica Alba, Gary Vaynerchuk and Gwyneth Paltrow for investment in their ideas.

This strategy does make a lot of sense. MTV found success pioneering the concept of music videos, and the world has only become more video-centric since. The short, bite-sized nature of genre is well-suited to mobile consumption, and being able to offer more than just the standard music video itself would help differentiate Apple Music.

In a sense, it's a more staid, but bigger-budget, celebrity-backed version of what Vevo CEO Eric Huggers outlined at IBC last year for his music video streaming service. (See IBC 2016: Vevo CEO Discusses New Direction .)

Nor was Apple Music the only one to announce a new slate of original content. HBO Europe is now developing new drama series from Croatia and Serbia, according to DTVE. Apparently the company has been planning original productions in the "Adria" region (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro), and is currently working on Croatian crime drama Uspjeh, and Serbian thriller Otok. The scripts were selected via a competition that brought in 500 entries.

It's not the first Eastern European foray for the programmer: HBO has developed shows in Poland and the Czech Republic in the past and is also planning to create more original content in the Nordics and Spain.

As we discussed in a previous post about Asian provider Viu, original content is the new black. Every major OTT provider is trying to find the right formula and match Netflix's success. (See Viu Gets Original, Just Like Everyone Else.)

But everyone can't succeed, and the cost of production is likely to rise with multiple players fighting for the best talent. That's going to make OTT more expensive, and content access more fragmented. The OTT market for mass-market entertainment is getting very crowded now, and while the HBOs and Apples might make it work, I wonder how much opportunity there is for anyone who isn't an established brand today.

— Aditya Kishore, Practice Leader, Video Transformation, Telco Transformation