As traditional entertainment companies grapple with the upheaval and uncertainty of COVID-19, tech giants Apple and Amazon are profiting handsomely during the pandemic. The tech giants on Thursday …
They took care to express concern about safety, of course, and conceded a degree of uncertainty about the outlook for when cameras will once again roll. But their main message was that they have plenty of other ways to keep growing while shooting remains on pause. That notion is well-established in an industry being reshaped by technology, but seldom has it been put in such stark relief.
“We’ve had to delay production,” Fildes said. “I think most studios have. That’s been augmented by things like Amazon Cinema, where we have first-run movies” due to theater closures. “In this time, when people want entertainment, people are having trouble creating new content across the board. That’s a bit of a challenge, but not something we’re doing intentionally. We’re doing it to protect the actors and the film crews. We think that’s the right decision.
Streaming overall, across a wide swath of Apple and Amazon’s operations, is booming during COVID-19. For both giants, the original video slice of that opportunity remains a rounding error in financial terms. Nevertheless, it has been enough of a corporate priority to get Cook and Amazon’s Jeff Bezos into a tuxedo plenty in recent years.
Both companies are worth upwards of $1.5 trillion. Apple has a Croesus-like $245 billion in cash on its balance sheet. That means when some marquee programming goes dark, Apple can fill gaps with projects from traditional rivals, as with the Tom Hanks movieThe tenor of the tech execs’ comments differed from that of besieged media execs in recent weeks, many of whom have responded to the dark days of the pandemic by offering upbeat estimates for the return of production and live sports.
While Amazon has been a player in original streaming programming for a decade, registering their presence with hits like, Apple just launched Apple TV+ last November. With other new services like Disney+ and Quibi also newly in the market and Netflix widening its lead with 26 million new subscribers in 2020 to date, this week’s Emmy nominations scorecard was telling.
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