Apple is planning to make original TV shows and movies

A Black Friday shopper visits an Apple Store.

(Image credit: George Frey/Getty Images)

Apple is planning to expand from iPhones and laptops to original television shows and movies, people familiar with the decisions told The Wall Street Journal. The original content is an attempt to boost the appeal of Apple Music, a $10-a-month streaming service that is dwarfed by Spotify.

Apple is reportedly already in talks with producers about buying the rights to scripted television shows, aiming to nab programs comparable to Westworld on HBO or Stranger Things on Netflix, The Wall Street Journal reports. Movies, while further down the line than TV, are also being discussed with "people in Hollywood."

Because it is looking at just a handful of carefully selected shows, and potentially films, it doesn't appear Apple is preparing to spend the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars it would need to spend annually to become a direct competitor to Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc.'s Prime Video, or premium cable networks.Rather, it would escalate the arms race between Apple Music and Spotify, which both offer essentially the same catalog of tens of millions of songs, by adding other content that could distinguish Apple's service. [The Wall Street Journal]

The company is aiming to have scripted content available on the service by the end of 2017.

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.