Apple continues to increase its investment in original podcast content, as it has signed an agreement with Pulitzer Prize-winning production company Futuro Studios, Bloomberg reports.
The Cupertino electronics firm is looking for original content to add to its Podcasts app that it hopes could turn into shows on its Apple TV+ service down the line. The deal with Futuro Studios, the maker of the criminal-justice series “Suave,” will fund the development and production of podcasts, say Bloomberg’s sources. In exchange, Apple will have the first chance to turn any podcast into a film or TV show.
In the last few years, Apple has worked to increase its podcasts output, spinning podcasts off of Apple TV+ series, such as the “For All Mankind” podcast. However, Apple has also been working from the other end of things, buying original podcast programs that it could possibly turn into television shows down the road.
Bloomberg says Apple is working on agreements with other podcast production studios, spending as much as $10 million so far. Apple-financed podcasts include the true crime series “Hooked” and “The Line.”
Apple is said to look at the podcast investment strategy as a relatively risk-free method of gauging interest in various types of material to determine whether it could become the foundation for a video series.
Apple has a ways to go when it comes to competing with other firms in pumping money into original podcasts, such as Amazon and Spotify, which have each spent more than $1 billion acquiring companies and programming.