Apple embarks on Emmy quest with big bet on video streaming

SAN FRANCISCO — Television is one of the few screens that has Apple hasn't conquered, but the company appears ready to aim for its own Emmy-worthy programming along the lines of HBO's "Game of Thrones" and Netflix's "Stranger Things."

Apple lured away two longtime TV executives Jaime Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg from Sony Corp. in June and has given them $1 billion to spend on original shows during the next year, according to a Wall Street Journal report quoting unnamed people.

The programming would only be available on a subscription channel, most likely bundled with the company's existing Apple Music streaming service. Apple declined to comment.

While $1 billion is a lot of money, it's a drop in the bucket for Apple and its $262 billion cash hoard. But it's still enough to vault Apple into the top tier of tech-industry outsiders producing their own slates of television shows.