Apple Fitness+: Job posting hints at live content
Apple is hiring a studio producer with live production experience for its Apple Fitness+ service—a possible indication of the service’s future. The job posting, published last month, describes a full-time position at Apple’s Santa Monica studio. The company is seeking someone with “deep knowledge of live or live-to-tape multi-camera productions and a genuine interest in the future development of live content.” Apple wants a “creative collaborator” who wants to “experiment with new formats” and “push the boundaries of what live fitness content can do.”
The specific job description reads more like production management in the Fitness+ sector than something specific to live content. Although Apple Fitness+ is not a live offering, many of the skills relevant to live production should also be applicable to the needs of Fitness+.
Apple Fitness+ launched in 2020 as a library of trainer-led workout and meditation videos for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. The videos are pre-produced and can be streamed. The Apple Watch is integrated into the service and provides workout data.
Apple Fitness+ currently has no live content
Apple has not previously offered live Peloton-style classes, real-time leaderboards, or scheduled workouts. Therefore, the repeated emphasis on live production capabilities in the job description seems to break new ground, even though the job description doesn’t specify what this live content would actually look like.
The job posting comes as Apple continues to reconsider the future of Fitness+. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported in November that Fitness+ was being “reviewed” as part of a broader restructuring, describing it as one of Apple’s “weakest digital offerings” due to high churn rates and low revenue. As part of this restructuring, Apple’s Vice President of Health, Sumbul Desai, assumed leadership of the service. The health division now reports directly to the head of services, Eddy Cue.
Gurman said in February that the review was still ongoing and speculated that Apple would eventually integrate Fitness+ directly with the Health app in some form, “perhaps offering it as a combined subscription.” He made no mention of plans for live content.
