Apple event - As it happened: Steven Spielberg among celebrities launching TV streaming, new credit card and magazine subscription services

Apple unveils Apple News+

Apple has launched a whole host of new services, intended to make more money from the people who have already bought its products.

In what was hailed as one of the most significant Apple events in years, the company did not reveal new products or software but instead a range of premium services. Together, they represent new ways to pay for news subscriptions, TV and games – as well as a new way to pay for anything, with a brand new titanium credit card.

The highlight of the new announcements was Apple TV+, a new streaming service built to compete with offerings like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. During the event, it invited many of the world's biggest stars and directors on stage to talk about the new shows, on which Apple is thought to have spent billions of dollars.

But it said it would bring a similar, paid-for and ad-free subscription service, for news and for games. All will allow people to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to that content.

Apple tried to link the various announcements together through references to its corporate principles: stressing a focus on privacy, quality, and the ways that the various products are built to work with the company's hardware and software.

But the different announcements were also linked together in the fact that few details were announced about any of them. Apple only revealed the cost and release date of one of the new products, and gave little information about how many of them will work.

Please allow a moment for the live blog to load

Key Points

• Apple announces subscribtion news and magazine service called Apple News+
• A new titanium credit card called Apple Card aims to transform Apple Pay

[25 March 2019 09:44 · Andrew Griffin]

Apple's event livestream page is up already. And, unusually, the stream actually works: it's currently showing what appear to be eerie, VHS-style images of the inside of the Steve Jobs Theater. On the screen is a display showing Apple Maps running inside a car, where someone is driving along a road called "Valpredo Ave".

Not clear whether this is all an accident: that the creepiness is because it's in the dark, and this shouldn't be being broadcast. (Apple has accidentally leaked its new products by mistakenly sharing videos on the internet before.) Or perhaps it's all an homage to one of the TV shows that are going to be revealed?

[25 March 2019 09:46 · Andrew Griffin]

The map is showing the car driving along. (I got the road wrong, it's on the I-5 going north – it was passing Valpredo Ave.) It's projected to arrive before 7am local time, which itself is about two hours before launch. Is this someone headed to the event? (They're going to be tired: it's 2.45am in California right now.)

[25 March 2019 09:48 · Andrew Griffin]

Here's a big display of that screen, showing where the car is going

[25 March 2019 10:22 · Andrew Griffin]

Here's a full write-up of that strange live stream, including the video itself.

[25 March 2019 10:39 · Andrew Griffin]

Here's a quick write-up from AP on what the Netflix-competitor  might look like:

Apple is expected to announce Monday that it's launching a video service that could compete with Netflix, Amazon and cable TV itself. 

It's a long-awaited attempt from the iPhone maker, several years after Netflix turned "binge watching" into a worldwide phenomenon. 

The new video service is expected to have original TV shows and movies that reportedly cost Apple more than $1 billion — far less than Netflix and HBO spend every year. 

Also expected is a subscription service consisting of news, entertainment and sports bundled from newspapers and magazines. 

Apple is making the announcements at its Cupertino, California, headquarters during an event likely to be studded with Hollywood celebrities. 

The iPhone has long been Apple's marquee product and main money maker, but sales are starting to decline. The company is pushing digital subscriptions as it searches for new growth. 

Making must-have TV shows and movies that are watchable on any device has propelled Netflix into a force in both Silicon Valley and Hollywood. 

But Apple remained focused on making on gadgets: iPhones, iPads, computers and its Apple TV streaming box for TVs. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs began toying with the idea of building a powerful TV business, but he couldn't pull it off before his death in 2011. It has taken his successor, CEO Tim Cook, nearly eight years to draw up the script that the company will now try to execute. 

"Apple is very late to this game," eMarketer analyst Paul Verna said. "Netflix has become the gold standard in how to create and distribute content, using all the data they have about their viewers." 

Netflix's prowess has attracted 139 million subscribers worldwide. But Apple will have several other deep-pocketed competitors fighting for consumers' dollars. Amazon has also become a formidable force in video streaming. Walt Disney Co. is launching its own service this year, armed with an imposing library that became more formidable with its purchase of 21st Century Fox's films and TV series. AT&T is debuting another streaming service built around HBO. 

Apple has plenty of money to spend, though, with about $245 billion in cash and marketable securities. It must prove itself attractive to Hollywood even without a track record for supporting high-quality programming and then ensuring it gets widely seen. 

As part of its efforts to make quick connections, Apple hired two longtime Sony television executives, Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, in 2017. They have reportedly signed up stars such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and Jennifer Aniston.

[25 March 2019 10:40 · Andrew Griffin]

And here's another set of more detailed stuff from Reuters:

Apple Inc is expected to finally lift the curtain on Monday on a secretive, years-long effort to build a television and movie offering designed to compete with big media companies and boost digital services revenue as iPhone sales taper.

"It's show time" is how the iPhone maker billed the affair slated for the Steve Jobs Theater at its Cupertino, California, headquarters. Analysts believe it will be the technology company's first splashy launch event that will not feature new gadgets or hardware.

Hollywood celebrities are likely to trek to Apple's Cupertino home to greet the debut of a revamped Apple TV digital storefront. Applehas commissioned programming from A-list names such as Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Oprah Winfrey and Steven Spielberg.

The Apple original shows are expected to be offered alongside the option to subscribe to content from Viacom Inc and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp's Starz, among others, sources have told Reuters.

Apple will join a crowded field where rivals such as Amazon.com's Prime Video and Netflix Inc have spent heavily to capture viewer attention and dollars with award-winning series and films.

The big tech war for viewers ignited a consolidation wave among traditional media companies preparing to join the fray. Walt Disney Co, which bought 21st Century Fox, and AT&T Inc, which purchased Time Warner Inc, plan to launch or test new streaming video services this year.

Apple's jump into original entertainment signals a fundamental shift in its business. Sales of hardware money-makers the iPhone, iPad and Mac were either stagnant or flat in its most recent fiscal year. Without another category-defining new gadget announced to the public, Apple is expected to rely on selling subscriptions and services like video, music and hardware insurance.

Revenue from its "services" segment - which includes the App Store, iCloud and content businesses such as Apple Music - grew 24 percent to $37.1 billion in fiscal 2018.

The services segment accounted for only about 14 percent of Apple's overall $265.6 billion in revenue, but investors have pinned their hopes for growth on the segment.

Apple's TV push has been cloaked in mystery. Even producers of Apple's shows are unsure about many of the details about when and how audiences will be able to see their work.

On Monday, Apple also is expected to unveil an Apple News subscription option featuring content from major publishers and a new credit card with Goldman Sachs to bolster Apple Pay.

NOT TAKING ON NETFLIX

While Apple plans to spend $2 billion on original shows this year and has hired Hollywood veterans to oversee them, it is unlikely to take on Netflix or Amazon directly by including libraries of older shows. Instead, its model is expected to more closely resemble the App Store, offering paid subscriptions to other media companies' programming and keeping a cut of sales.

Ahead of the launch, Apple negotiated deals that would let Apple bundle and sell networks at a discount, replicating a business model from the cable TV industry, one source familiar with the matter said.

Apple's goal, other sources have told Reuters, is to bring together television shows in one place to make it easier to find, buy and watch them. Apple has worked to make it easier to watch the shows on traditional television from manufacturers such as Sony Corp, VIZIO Inc, LG Electronics Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

Apple's pitch to Hollywood is that it has the potential to reach hundreds of millions of viewers. The company said in January there were 1.4 billion active Apple devices, 900 million of which are iPhones. It has positioned that as leverage against Netflix's 139 million global customers and the 100 million subscribers to Amazon's Prime shipping program, which includes the video service.

But the Silicon Valley company has a history of making quick progress when coming from behind: It launched its Apple Music streaming service years after rival Spotify Technology SA but has garnered 50 million listeners, nearly half of Spotify's 96 million premium subscribers. And Apple in January said its Apple News service had 85 million active users after being released less than four years ago.

[25 March 2019 11:26 · Andrew Griffin]

That car is still driving along, according to the live feed:

That's here:

Driving from there to Apple Park does take about two-and-a-half hours, according to Apple Maps. It does seem like that's where the car's heading.

(My guess is this is going to serve as some part of the introductory video, which will no doubt include all the Apple pizzazz and dad jokes.)

[25 March 2019 11:29 · Andrew Griffin]

This is what the view would look like from, courtesy of Google Street View, though of course it's early in the morning and darker at the moment.

[25 March 2019 11:32 · Andrew Griffin]

The new AirPods, revealed this week, are starting to ship now, according to MacRumors. The site suggests that some UK customers could even receive their new ones before the event today.

[25 March 2019 13:07 · Andrew Griffin]

The car is still on the road, driving through the night, getting ever closer to Apple Park. There's now someone – clearly superimposed – sat there watching it. It will arrive in 40 minutes...