Apple’s head of streaming services, Eddy Cue has been speaking to the media recently to provide some sort of idea of what to expect from the company’s new TV service. In a discussion with GQ Britain, he denied reports that Apple was busy interfering with producers over the content of television shows. He claimed that the firm has never given script notes to producers.
In September 2018, the Wall Street Journal reported that Apple executives were not happy with Vital Signs, a show based on the life of Dr Dre. CEO Tim Cook was reported as having called the series too violent, and saying that Apple won’t stream it.
In another incident, Bryan Fuller, the showrunner of Amazing Stories, reportedly left because of creative differences. He apparently preferred a darker show, something similar to Black Mirror, while Apple wanted it to be more family-friendly.
Cue, however, denies any interference. He said: “There’s never been one note passed from us on scripts, that I can assure you.” He acknowledged that Apple was a newcomer to the field, and added that this is why its policy was to “find the best people for it” and let them do the job.
Apple is nevertheless known to have a preference for family-friendly content, and it has many shows in the pipeline that could be done without HBO and Amazon’s levels of violence and sex.
Cue emphasised that Apple preferred quality over quantity, unlike Netflix, which is now spending billions on quality original shows to change perceptions that it would stream just about anything as long as it came with the “Netflix Original” label.
He seemed very confident and even described Apple shows such as For All Mankind and the upcoming series The Morning Show with Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon as “the best.”