Hey guys, welcome back. You're back with me and Eddy Cue, SVP of Services at Apple. You guys know him from my previous videos. It's so nice to be with you here today in the south of France.
It's awesome to get together again. I enjoyed it so much last time. I was really looking forward to this.
Thank you, me too. So, congratulations on the honor of Entertainment Person of the Year here at Cannes Lions. What does that award mean to you personally?
It's really about Apple TV and the team that we've built. We started this about eight years ago. We didn't have any content at all. We had to build everything from scratch. The team didn't exist. We hired two people to head it up — Jamie Erlich and Zach Van Amburg. I think this is really a recognition of the incredible work that they and the whole team have done. I get to receive it on their behalf, honestly, because the shows we've created are just amazing. It's hard for me to believe that in that short of a time, here we are as one of the best studios on the planet.
Absolutely. That exactly leads into my next question. What was the original vision of Apple TV and how has it evolved over time?
You know, we obviously are a technology company, but we were always about creatives from the very start. We thought about how do we use technology to help creatives do their best work and empower them. I mean, you are the living example of that, shooting on iPhone. You don't need a team of folks — you could do it all. That was impossible before, and that's what we've been about. We've always had a great appreciation for it, and Steve was also the CEO of Pixar for a while. I learned a lot about the moviemaking process from him during that time.
Ten years ago, everybody was trying to make a lot of quantity and not a lot of quality. I felt like there was a real opportunity for us as a company that tries to be the best, not the most. I grew up at a time when there was one particular service that anytime they did a show, I knew it was going to be a good show or a great show. That was kind of missing, and I thought we had a great opportunity to do it. And I think we've done it.
Which is kind of crazy. The fun thing about this is it's not about what we've done, it's about what we're doing. We've got all these great shows coming up now because we have second and third seasons — like Silo, Ted Lasso's coming back, the new season of The Studio, new season of Platonic. And then we have brand new shows. Wonders Bay just ended, which — think about that, we're going to do a horror show that's also funny.
Yeah, how do you do that?
How do you do that? I was like, I've never seen that in my life. A lot of the shows we've done, we work with the greatest people with these amazing ideas. Think of Severance — innies and outies and all this stuff. You'd never think it would work, but the team — we've assembled a team that the best creators in the world now want to work with us because we empower them to do their best work. And it's awesome.
It is awesome. I love that. So, last time we spoke back in January, Formula 1 on Apple TV was still a vision. Months later, here we are and we've seen it come to reality. What has been your favorite part about seeing Formula 1 on Apple TV come to life?
Look, as a fan, I'm a huge fan, and so I've enjoyed watching it because the quality of the video with 4K and Dolby sound is amazing — better than anything you've seen before. And then we've added all of the multi-views. I grew up always as a Ferrari fan and so I watch the main race, and then I watch Charles and Lewis. Amazing. Lewis just won.
Yeah. The thing I cared most about was that if you're an F1 fan, this was going to be the best experience for watching F1. And I think we've gotten a lot of feedback that that's the case. We're only five or six races into this and we've got a lot more ideas and stuff. So we're having a lot of fun with it.
What stuck with me was when we chatted with Stefano, how you both said you're excited about the passion. I've seen that come to life — the passion as a fan watching, and even being there, and then watching on Apple TV, you feel it.
Yeah, because we care. It's not programming. It's something we love. You know, you and I have talked about this before — I was on a plane the other day and somebody was asking me what do you look for when you're hiring people. And I said there's only one thing I really look for, which is passion. You want to have people that are passionate about what they're doing, because those are the people that do the greatest work. It's not work, it's what they love to do. So that's what we have. We have a lot of passion for Formula 1, and I think it shows in the product.
Oh, absolutely. So, another amazing, incredible event that I went to with Apple last year was the MLS All-Star game. I'm a huge soccer fan, so that was like, I was just blown away. How do you see Apple branching into sports even further?
You know, it's tough because sports rights are all broken up, and we're a global company — we like doing things globally. So it won't be as fast as I would like it to be, but it's exactly the way we're doing it — taking one step, and when we take a step in a sport, we go all in. So every Formula 1 race is available. One of the things that's been great — I've always thought of Saturday as just as important as Sunday, qualifying and now the sprint races ahead of time. Saturday viewing has gone through the roof on Apple TV because it's a great thing and we've been promoting and programming it really well. That's what we look for. We'll keep adding hopefully more sports over time, but it takes a while because all these sports rights are multi-year by country. It just takes a long time. But as a fan, I know what we're doing is what people want.
Absolutely. Do we see Apple hosting a World Cup in the future?
It's fun to watch games. Our US team is actually, they're really competitive. I mean, they look good.
That last game was incredible. We're in France. They play tonight.
