IOVINE TALKS APPLE VIDEO EXPANSION

Jimmy Iovine told a group of reporters that Apple Music is “trying to create an entire pop-culture experience that includes audio and video,” following up on last week’s report that the streaming service plans to offer original scripted programming by the end of the year.

“If South Park walks into my office, I’m not going to say, ‘You’re not musicians.’ We’re going to do whatever hits pop culture smack on the nose,” Iovine told the Television Critics Association at their networks’ bi-annual dog and pony show.”

Iovine was at the HBO session to discuss The Defiant Ones, the cable company’s four-part documentary about the paring of Iovine and Dr. Dre. Allen Hughes directed the doc, which will premiere in the spring.

Earlier, The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple was in talks with producers about buying rights to scripted television programs as well as studio and network marketing executives.

The company has yet to purchase series or films to run exclusively on the service, an element designed to distinguish it from Spotify. The Journal article said Apple is not making the investment necessary to become a competitor to Netflix or Hulu.

If Iovine were in charge of programming, he suggested that he would dive into African-American culture.

“African American culture is one of the most undervalued [assets] America has, even with this nonsense America is going through this this hysterical shit,” Deadline quoted him saying. He predicted African American culture would be 40- 50% of television programming in three years.