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Live blog: Apple’s ‘show time’ TV and news services event

Apple is expected to announce a TV service, TV shows, and an Apple News subscription plan

Photo by Dieter Bohn / The Verge

Apple is all set to announce a huge slate of TV shows, a new video service to go along with them, and even a new subscription service for Apple News. It’s a lot — so much that the company likely won’t talk much about hardware. Apple pushed new iPads, new iMacs, and new AirPods out the door via press release the week before, clearing the board so it could focus on its new services.

The biggest news we are expecting from the event is likely to be the TV service and the slate of TV shows. Because it’s Hollywood, there has already been a lot of industry news about what shows are in production. Dickinson will do what it says in the title — be a comedy about Emily Dickinson — hopefully there will be a lot of dashes. And maybe the most-anticipated new series will be The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell. Alongside Apple’s own shows, it may let people subscribe to third-party services like Showtime (but likely not Netflix).

There’s also a decent chance Oprah will show up. It will be that kind of event.

We also expect that Apple will announce a news subscription service — and maybe even will kick off the event with it. You can think of the rumored Apple News service as basically a Netflix for news and magazines. The New York Times recently reported that The Wall Street Journal is on board, but that The New York Times and Washington Post are not. The fact that Apple is rumored to be taking a 50 percent cut likely has something to do with that. The news service is based on Apple’s acquisition of Texture, which had focused on magazines instead of newspapers — so it’s a safe bet magazines will feature heavily in Apple’s take on the service.

It’ll be a different kind of Apple event, which probably means we’ll have plenty of surprises to talk about. You can follow it all in our live blog!

Live from Apple’s March 2019 event

You can follow the latest news on our Apple hub, stream the event on Apple’s website, and get more updates from The Verge on Twitter and Instagram.