Apple hires Jay Hunt to serve as European creative director for original video
Posted: October 25, 2017 4:07PM
in iPod + iTunes + AppleTV
Apple has reportedly picked the former chief creative officer of Channel 4, Jay Hunt, as its new creative director for European video, further signalling that it intends to spend some of its $1 billion programming warchest overseas.
Hunt will be part of an international content development team, serving under Apple video heads Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, Variety said on Wednesday. During her Channel 4 tenure, she was best known for shows like "Black Mirror" and "Humans" -- prior to that she was at BBC One, and oversaw shows like "Luther" and "Sherlock."
The executive left Channel 4 in June in the middle of a management shakeup, and has allegedly been a candidate for various high-level positions in the U.S. The Apple job, starting in January, will reportedly allow her to remain in London.
Her hire may have been helped by previous collaborations with Erlicht and Van Amburg while they were still at Sony Pictures Television.
Apple is expected to spend $1 billion or more on original programming during the next year, with a particularly focus on high-budget dramas in the style of "Breaking Bad" or "Game of Thrones." The first signed show is believed to be a reboot of Steven Spielberg's "Amazing Stories."
Morgan Wandell - previously of Amazon and ABC -- is rumored to be overseeing international development and co-productions from offices in Culver City, near Hollywood. A recent report suggested that Apple is eyeing an upcoming Los Angeles facility as a home for video production.
Still unclear is how Apple intends to air future shows. Lower-budget productions like "Planet of the Apps" and "Carpool Karaoke" have been exclusives to Apple Music, but the company would presumably want a bigger audience for more expensive material.
negociarlaw	Posts: 40member
A very attractive woman.
I hope she can do well in the Euro.
arie	Posts: 27member
What does this movie business have to do with computers, the calculator on my iPhone that sucks or technology topics?? Complexity is coming, they doing too much stuff all over the place. What they need is focus. Just my humble opinion you may disagree (some here will probably will disagree) but I just don't get it.
arie said:
What's wrong with the calculator?
Rayz2016	Posts: 4,627member
You forgot to say, "If Steve were alive…"
Roger_Fingas	Posts: 145member, editor
Increasing profits from its services segment, and attracting people to its hardware platforms.
dewme	Posts: 2,094member
Take a look at the (YouTube) video of Steve Jobs and Bill Gates speaking together on stage at the D5 Conference in 2007. They may not have agreed on a wide range of topics but what they did agree on is the reality that it was (in 2007) a great time to be a content owner. This is even a bigger concern today. Next time you see your favorite series getting yanked from your Netflix subscription and moved over to a subscription service that you do not subscribe to you'll understand a little bit more about why content ownership is a good thing for a platform/ecosystem owner and curator.
A side note about the same video - Bill Gates pretty much sums up the perfect business rationale for the iPad - still three years out but well underway internally at Apple. BTW, no Apple device is so intertwined with the value of content than is the iPad.
arinker	Posts: 2member
Where is Channel 4 located?
boltsfan17	Posts: 2,161member
arinker said:
It's in the UK.
bestkeptsecret	Posts: 3,324member
Channel 4 has such creative names. There was 4, 4+, 4OD (probably 4All now), More4...
They kept me pretty entertained during my London visits.