Apple has landed a pair of Sony TV executives to lead its video programming business worldwide.
Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg are both leaving Sony Picture Television—after a run that saw them help produce series including “The Crown,” “Rescue Me,” “Breaking Bad” and its spinoff “Better Call Saul”—to take on newly created positions at Apple.
“Jamie and Zack are two of the most talented TV executives in the world and have been instrumental in making this the golden age of television,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, in a statement. “We have exciting plans in store for customers and can’t wait for them to bring their expertise to Apple—there is much more to come.”
“It will be an honor to be part of the Apple team,” said Erlicht in a statement. “We want to bring to video what Apple has been so successful with in their other services and consumer products—unparalleled quality.”
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Apple last week debuted its first original series, “Planet of the Apps,” a reality competition series produced by Ben Silverman and hosted by Will.i.am, Jessica Alba, Gwyneth Paltrow and tech investor Gary Vaynerchuk. In August, Apple will release another original series, a spinoff series for “Carpool Karaoke,” the popular recurring skit from “The Late Late Show with James Corden.”
It’s unclear if the new hires for Apple indicate an acceleration for its original content schedule, but it does give Apple a management team with a proven track record for producing series.
Earlier this year, Cue told VentureBeat Apple isn’t interested in buying mass amounts of content like Netflix and Amazon, but is instead focusing on adding value to its existing platforms through the addition of original content.
“We are trying to do something that’s unique, that takes advantage of our platform and then really brings culture to it, and—right now we think we could do that with partners like [Silverman]. We don’t see that anywhere else,” Cue said.