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Apple Event Preview – what to expect from today’s presentation

Today’s the day Apple officially enters the crowded TV streaming market, and it’s only a matter of hours until we see what Tim Cook and co. have been planning for the last few years.

If you’ve missed the hype, Apple is today hosting a special event titled “It’s show time” in order to reveal to the world its plans to expand its services beyond music and into television.

We’ve had an inkling of what to expect for a while, with original content from big names hitting our screens later this year. Those big names, by the way, include Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, J.J. Abrams, M. Night Shyamalan, and many more besides.

But beyond Apple’s billion-dollar content creation ambitions, which it hopes will one day rival the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, is an entire cable-cutting subscription operation that the company aims to pad out with partnerships with existing TV networks.

The exact details were intended to be a surprise, but the Wall Street Journal claims to have insider information ahead of the presentations. Take this with a grain of salt until we hear it straight from the horse’s mouth later today, but WSJ says that Apple has rallied third-party networks HBO, Starz, and Showtime for its TV platform.

That doesn’t mean that all those networks’ shows will be available in one massive umbrella subscription – each will be sold separately within Apple’s TV app, reportedly for $10/month each. When Apple’s own shows are ready later this year, it will add a similar in-app subscription for access to those, too.

Apple is also expected to unveil a paid News subscription today, though fewer details are known about the partners it has on board for that or exactly what the service will comprise.

Many of the stars attached to various upcoming Apple projects are expected to be in attendance tonight, and chances are the event will offer up more glitz and glamor than we’re used to at these keynote presentations.

You can tune in to watch the proceedings live via the Apple website or via the Apple Events app on a fourth-generation Apple TV at 10 am PST. Of course, if you’re busy then (or don’t fancy sitting through the whole thing) we’ll be sure to update you with everything you need to know shortly after the event finishes. Stay tuned!