Former HBO chief Richard Plepler inks five-year content deal with Apple

Richard Plepler, former chief executive over at HBO, has signed a five-year content production deal with Apple. Plepler, who previously worked at HBO for 27 years before the premium cable company was purchased by AT&T, recently founded Eden Productions, a production company that will now exclusively create content for Apple TV+.

From The New York Times:

In a recently signed five-year deal, Mr. Plepler's new company, Eden Productions, will make television series, documentaries and feature films exclusively for Apple TV Plus, the streaming platform that started in November. The arrangement gives Mr. Plepler a significant role in an expanding streaming universe soon to include HBO Max, a supersize platform that has been a focus of his former corporate home since he departed in February after having lost some of his autonomy.

Plepler has also stated that, while he explored multiple different avenues for the next step in his career, his only serious conversations were with Apple. Plepler had previously worked closely with Apple, in particular, SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, when HBO was debuting its own streaming service, HBO Now.

Apple TV+ launched in November 2019 with a concentrated slate of shows, with additional programs debuting over the first couple of months of the service's life. The streaming service's approach to content has seemed at times more akin to HBO than competitors like Netflix, preferring a more curated experience at the expense of a more widely-appealing catalog.