mtn328
Member
Amazon is the number one partner
Platform owners like apple and Google typically make a profit by charging a fee to buy merchandise, specifically 30% of apple's revenue from apps and in-app purchases (including movies sold through apps like Amazon Video) (up from 15% a year later).
As a result, Amazon Video, Google Play movies, Vudu and others often steer viewers to their own websites for deals in order to avoid selling movies and TV shows directly on Apple TV.
Now apple has changed its policy to allow video partners to charge users through its in-app payment system without charging 30 per cent of revenues. The first major partner to take advantage of the policy is Amazon, which as of this week had been selling and renting movies through its Amazon Prime Video app on Apple TV in the United States.
Spotify has been one of the most vocal critics of the policy, arguing that it gives an unfair advantage to Apple's own services such as Apple Music.
It's all part of a larger plan
Apple said its new plans included "integration with Apple TV apps, AirPlay 2 support, tvOS apps, universal search, Siri support and, if applicable, single sign-on or log-in free."
In other words, it seems that partners must register for deeper integration to be able to take advantage of changes. For example, if Netflix wants to avoid 30 or 15 per cent of Apple's revenue from new users who sign up directly on Apple TV, it will probably have to restore support for AirPlay and make its content library available from the Apple TV app.
This has implications for tvOS (Apple TV) as a platform and may lead to increased competition. In addition to amazon, apple said Canal + and Altice One were already making use of the new policy to sell.
