The growing arms race to create original content continues to ramp up. This Friday, Apple has announced that it has finalized a deal with Oprah Winfrey to create content for the tech giant’s new video subscription service. While details about the agreement are still under wraps, Apple stated, “Winfrey and Apple will create original programs that embrace her incomparable ability to connect with audiences around the world. Winfrey’s projects will be released as part of a lineup of original content from Apple.” Sources close to The Hollywood reporter believe that “original content” will include “film, TV, applications, books and other content.” However, original content will not include podcasts as Winfrey already owns her own podcast network
Despite forming a partnership with Apple, the agreement is non-exclusive and Winfrey will remain the CEO and founder of her Discovery Communications back network, OWN. This makes sense considering Winfrey recently inked a deal with Discovery to remain at the helm of OWN through 2025. In exchange, Discovery gained nearly 25% ownership of the company going forward, which puts their overall stake at 70%. With that being said, Winfrey still controls a major minority stake in the venture.
The announcement of the deal to bring Winfrey into Apple comes just a few weeks after Netflix announced that it has inked a deal with Barack and Michelle Obama. Recently, Amazon also dipped their foot further into the pool of content by finalizing a first look deal with Nicole Kidman. Going forward, it will be interesting to see what major player will make the next move in the battle of content.
