In a surprise move, Apple (AAPL -0.6%) is the buyer of the Carpool Karaoke series being spun out of The Late Late Show with James Corden (NYSE:CBS).
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Each installment, featuring a to-be-announced host (who won’t be Corden) and celebrities belting tunes while riding to locations meaningful to the star, will be available exclusively to Apple Music subscribers.
The popular Carpool Karaoke will continue to be a recurring segment on THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH JAMES CORDEN, which is broadcast Monday through Friday on the CBS Television Network. Fulwell 73 is the production company run by Late Late Show executive producer Ben Winston.
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Cue said Apple would only become involved in projects tied to its products, especially Apple Music.
“The joy of Carpool is both the intimacy it creates, while seeing the love our passengers have for music”. Apple has been making its first steps into original television programming as a way to promote its growing services segment. Scott Koondel, CBS’s chief content licensing officer, spearheaded the sale process and helped drive the initiative to adapt the segment as a regular series.
Based on The Late Late Show viral segment in which celebrities hop in host James Corden’s vehicle and sing some of their biggest hits, the series will debut on Apple Music through an exclusive first-window licensing agreement that was announced on Tuesday.
It may be harder for the series to go viral if it’s behind Apple Music’s $10 per month subscription paywall, but it’s easy to understand how Apple thinks a series about singing is a natural fit for a music service.
While centered around streaming music, Apple Music has been turning to original video content as an exclusive bonus for its 15 million-plus paying subscribers as it fights in the competitive segment against the likes of Spotify and Google Play. In March, for example, the New York Post reported that Apple is at work on a TV show about app developers. There will be 16 weekly episodes of the show, according to a statement.
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Earlier this year, news broke that CBS Television Studios was shopping a “Carpool Karaoke” series.
