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Digging into Apple’s media transformation

Extra Crunch offers members the opportunity to tune into conference calls led and moderated by the TechCrunch writers you read every day. This week, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief, Matthew Panzarino, offered his analysis on the major announcements that came out of Apple’s keynote event this past Monday.

Behind a series of new subscription and media products, Apple has set the stage for one of the largest transformations in the company’s history. Matthew touches on all of Apple’s major product initiatives including Apple’s new credit card, its push into original content, its subscription gaming platform, and its subscription news service, which features Extra Crunch as one of the debut publications.

“I don’t think many of the things that Apple announced here, on an individual basis, are earth-shattering. I think it shapes up to be a really solid, nice offering for people with some distinct advantages but at the same time it’s not breaking huge molds here. I think the same thing applies across all of the offerings that they put out there.

I just felt that together, it’s solid but not scintillating and we need to see how they develop, how they launch, and then what they do with these platforms…

…Seems relatively straightforward. However, some of the stuff people have glossed over is very intriguing.”

Matthew goes into more detail on why he didn’t view the announcements as individually earth-shattering, and why he sees compelling opportunities for Apple to position its offerings as a symbiotic ecosystem. He also goes under the hood to discuss some of Apple’s overlooked competitive advantages in media and to paint a picture of how Apple’s new product lines might evolve in the long-term.

For access to the full transcription and the call audio, and for the opportunity to participate in future conference calls, become a member of Extra Crunch. Learn more and try it for free. 

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The Handmaid’s Tale gets greenlight for season 3

The Handmaid’s Tale, America’s favorite dystopian drama, will return for a third season.

Hulu announced the news this morning on the heels of revealing it has hit 20 million subscribers for its streaming service.

The second season of The Handmaid’s Tale is currently airing on Hulu, with the third episode to available today.

The series is based on Margaret Atwood’s 1985 novel by the same name. In it, humanity has become mostly infertile, leading a conservative militia to overtake the country and enslave the remaining fertile women as childbearers for the “upstanding” families of the regime.

In Season One, the story was focused on exposition of the new world as well as our main character, Offred (June) and her life as a Handmaid. Season 2 seems to be expanding on that world and our main character, showing both the good and the bad of her character’s personality.

The Handmaid’s Tale is far and away Hulu’s most popular and critically acclaimed original series, winning five Emmys last year, including one for Best Drama series.

If you want to learn more about The Handmaid’s Tale, make sure to check out the latest episode of TC’s Original Content podcast.

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Facebook launches Watch tab of original video shows

 Facebook has a new home for original video content produced exclusively for it by partners, who will earn 55 percent of ad break revenue while Facebook keeps 45 percent. The “Watch” tab and original shows will start rolling out to a small group of U.S. users tomorrow on mobile, desktop and Facebook’s TV apps. Read More

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