Apple could launch a video subscription product next year, while Netflix could be forced to introduce new pricing plans, one analyst firm has predicted.
Tech analysts at CCS Insight released their 12th annual set of predictions about the industry on Wednesday.
One of those is the emergence of an Apple on-demand video service. Original content would feature heavily.
“Everyone is jostling for position and everyone is jumping in on the area of video. When you look at Apple, it has a very strong hardware offering and their services business is on the march,” Paolo Pescatore, vice president of multiplay and media at CCS Insight, told CNBC on the phone.
“The real battleground is in the area of original content, but original content would feature prominent and Apple would be very well placed to do that.”
Software and services is seen as a key growth driver for Apple in the future as smartphone life cycles potentially get longer and as the iPhone-maker looks to monetize is massive user base.
Revenues from services came in at $8.5 billion in the September quarter, growing 34 percent year-on-year.
And video could be a way to boost that further, building off the back of other subscription services like Apple Music.
Apple, the world’s largest company by market capitalization, has already dabbled with original content. It acquired rights for “Carpool Karaoke,” which debuted on Apple Music this year, for example.
And Chief Executive Tim Cook has also commented on original content, hinting there could be more to come.
“With our toe in the water, we are learning a lot about the original content business, and thinking about ways that we could play in that,” Cook said in an earnings call in January.
