Apple confirms March 25 event, expected to announce new TV streaming service

Highlights

• Apple has sent out invites for an event scheduled for March 25.
• The tagline of the event is “Its Show Time”.
• Apple is expected to announce its streaming service at the event.

Apple has sent out invites for an event on March 25. The invite reads, “Its Show Time”. At the event, Apple is expected to announce its much rumoured TV streaming service. Apple is also expected to announce its News subscription service as well. 

An interesting thing which The Verge notes is that the first time Apple used the “Its Show Time” tag on an event invite was in 2006. At the event, Apple announced that it would start offering movies on iTunes. The first gen Apple TV was also unveiled at the event, though at the time it was called the iTV and was rebranded to the Apple TV when the device launched in 2007. 

Apple's TV streaming service has been rumoured for a long time now, with the company making several investments in original content. The March 25 launch of Apple's streaming service was first reported on in February, but the company had not officially announced it back then. The report noted that Apple invited many Hollywood stars to the event. The upcoming video streaming service is expected to be similar to Netflix and Amazon Prime Video and will include TV shows and movies either acquired or funded by Apple. 

Coming to the Apple News Service, it is reported to be a subscription service for magazines and newspapers. All the subscribed content will be available to readers in one convenient place. 

At CES 2019, Samsung TVs got support for iTunes whereas TVs from LG, Sony and more got support for Apple AirPlay 2. This means that on a Samsung TV you can natively enjoy your Apple movies and TV shows library whereas on the other TVs you will be able to “cast” or rather AirPlay them on the TV. This will significantly increase the market Apple can target with its upcoming streaming service. If limited to Apple devices only, the service may not see widespread appeal. 

We saw something similar when Apple launched the original iPod. The original iTunes software worked with a Mac only and when Apple made the software compatible with Windows, iPods started flying off the shelves. Sometimes, it helps to open up your ecosystem a little bit. 

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