Apple's rumored subscription news service will reportedly be announced at a March 25 event
- Apple will reportedly host a March 25th event at The Steve Jobs Theater in its Apple Park campus where it's expected to unveil its rumored subscription news service.
- Apple has previously hinted that it will launch new services this year, but hasn't revealed any details yet or confirmed the March 25th event.
- The news comes shortly after The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has run into resistance from news publishers over a proposed revenue split that would see Apple pocket 50%.
Apple is planning to hold a special event on March 25 during which it's expected to share details on its rumored subscription news service, according to a new report from BuzzFeed.
The event would mark Apple's first major product announcement for 2019. Although the company has unveiled new iPads during events held in March in years past, the report indicates a subscription news service will be the focus of the event. Other rumored products like a new iPad mini and second generation Air Pods are not expected to make an appearance at this event.
The report comes hours after The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple has run into resistance during negotiations with top news publishers over the terms of its subscription news service. Apple is looking to partner with publishers on a subscription news service that would allow readers to pay around $10 per month to read content that is usually paywalled, but Apple's proposed 50% revenue split with publishers has not gone over well, according to the Journal.
Apple CEO Tim Cook recently teased that "new services" from Apple are coming in 2019 during an interview with CNBC's Jim Cramer. "On services, you will see us announce new services this year," Cook said. "There will be more things coming, I don't want to tell you what they are."
The launch would be Apple's latest push to grow its services revenue with a goal of hitting $50 billion by 2020. Services revenue will be an important metric for Apple moving forward as it grapples with slowing iPhone sales in China. Since Apple announced in November that it would no longer break out iPhone sales in its quarterly earnings reports, investors will likely be looking to the growth of its services business moving forward, which reached an all-time high of $10 billion during the holiday quarter.
Apple declined to comment on or confirm a March 25 event.