Via Business Insider, Apple is currently looking for an ad sales executive focused on TV content. Apple’s involvement in video advertising is already set to expand with the company’s growing live sports deals, like Major League Soccer (beginning next month) and MLB Friday Night Baseball.
Moreover, there’s ongoing speculation that Apple is planning to launch an ads tier of Apple TV+ as soon as this year, which the new ad exec would oversee. The Business Insider report says Apple is looking at candidates similar to Paramount Global’s chief digital advertising officer and Netflix ad sales VP Peter Naylor.
With the launch of ads plans from Netflix and Disney at the end of 2022, Apple TV+ is now the only major streaming service provider not to offer a cheaper ad-supported tier as an option.
Apple TV+ is currently priced at $6.99 per month, with unlimited 4K viewing for up to six family members with no ads or commercials. A cheaper tier with ads could help drive viewership to Apple’s original content, which has struggled to find mass public awareness despite garnering much critical acclaim.
A move into ads may also be an incentive for Apple to go beyond its ‘all originals’ strategy for TV+, with more content meaning more eyeballs and necessarily more opportunities for ad placement.
The Insider article also says that Apple is planning to have a large presence at the Cannes festival this year, a hotspot for ad execs to cut deals.
However, Apple also have commitments to promoting its content slate which may partly explain its interest in Cannes. For instance, major upcoming feature film ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, is currently rumored to be headlining the Cannes film festival.
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