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Here’s Apple TV Plus’ launch lineup

Here’s Apple TV Plus’ launch lineup

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There will be nine originals to watch on November 1st

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Apple TV Plus will launch with nine originals on November 1st, including Jason Momoa’s apocalyptic sci-fi series See and the Jennifer Aniston-led The Morning Show. TV Plus will launch on November 1st for $4.99 per month. This monthly cost includes family access, and you’ll even get a whole year free of Apple TV Plus if you buy a new iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV.

The Morning Show and See are joined by For All Mankind, Dickinson, Helpsters, Snoopy in Space, Ghostwriter, The Elephant Queen, and a new project from Oprah Winfrey. Here’s a quick rundown of what these various series and original projects are, from a new Snoopy story to being part of Oprah’s book club.

Apple wants TV Plus to be a spot for prestige TV. It’s why The Morning Show and See, which saw Apple spend more than $15 million per episode on each, are receiving so much attention.

  • The Morning Show is a series about the politics of a morning TV show and stars Aniston alongside Reese Witherspoon and Steve Carell.
  • See is a story about a group of humans trying to survive in a world where humans have lost sight.
  • For All Mankind is a new series from Battlestar Galactica executive producer Ronald D. Moore, and imagines an alternate reality where the global space race never ended.
  • Dickinson is a dramatic period piece about the poet Emily Dickinson, played by Hailee Steinfeld.
  • The Elephant Queen is a documentary exploring the threat of elephant extinction.

It’s not just adult-oriented content, though. Apple wants TV Plus to be family ready from the get-go, and that’s clear from its launch titles.

  • Helpsters is a new series from the creators of Sesame Street and will follow “Cody and a team of vibrant monsters who love to help solve problems,” according to Apple.
  • Snoopy in Space is exactly what it sounds like — a new series from Peanuts Worldwide and DHX Media that follows Charlie Brown’s lovable dog as he follows his dreams of becoming an astronaut.
  • Ghostwriter is a reinvention of the original series, and finds four kids teaming up to release fictional characters from their books.

Last, but certainly not least, Oprah will join Apple TV Plus with a series that features “compelling authors in conversation as [Oprah] builds a vibrant, global book club community and other projects to connect with people around the world and share meaningful ways to create positive change,” according to Apple.

Most of TV Plus’ series will premiere with three episodes, with one new episode rolling out each week. Full seasons of some series, however, will be available all at once. The company also announced that there will be new series announced every month, but it’s unclear when those will drop. Some of the next series include Servant, Truth Be Told, and Little America. Two feature films, Hala and The Banker, will also be released in the coming months.

The company’s commitment to original content is well-documented. Apple increased its content budget from around $1 billion to more than $6 billion, according to Bloomberg. It’s a figure that took Netflix years to reach once it started investing in original content, and is approximately 25 percent of Disney’s overall content budget. Apple wants its services division to reach $50 billion in sales by 2020, and investing in original content that drives monthly subscriptions is one way to do that.

Apple — even more than Netflix, Disney, and other competitors like AT&T’s WarnerMedia or Comcast’s NBC Universal — needs to invest pretty heavily in original content from the get-go. The company hasn’t announced plans to invest in licensed content, like Amazon has done in the past, nor does it have the library of beloved titles like Disney+ or even WarnerMedia’s HBO Max to keep people satiated while new series are developed. If Apple wants to keep subscribers, and build its base, devoting a large amount of funds to original content upfront is imperative.