by Jason Snell
Apple to Apple TV users: We don’t care what you want to watch
Apple is apparently beta testing some changes to the Watch Now tab of its TV app on Apple TV. As Chance Miller reports at 9to5Mac:
The Apple TV app is taking a page out of the playbook of other streaming services and pushing “Featured” content over the more useful “Up Next” aggregation. With a change rolling out starting today, the first thing you’ll see when you open the TV app is a dedicated row for “Featured” content…
This new dedicated row for “Featured” content replaces the new previous top-level row for “Up Next.” The Up Next row aggregates the next episodes of TV shows you’re watching from any app that integrates with the TV app, which is essentially any streaming service app other than Netflix.
In the last year since cutting the cord I have come to rely on the Up Next view in the TV app as the most convenient launching pad for the next episode of the shows I’m currently watching. It has worked exactly as Apple intended it to, making the TV app be a place I actually want to be! I once thought the lack of Netflix shows in the interface would be its doom, but it turns out that instead I’m just watching Netflix shows a lot less because they’re not in Up Next. Netflix take note.
But by pushing Up Next lower down (below the fold!) in Watch Now, Apple is joining the ranks of a lot of other apps—Netflix, Hulu, and many others—who have made the poor decision that it’s better to divert customers away from the shows they actually want to watch, in order to expose them to other content that they want to advertise.
My friend John Siracusa put it perfectly: This ain’t it, Apple. I don’t mind you suggesting new shows for me to watch. But to prioritize them over my own preferences? I thought that you were better than that. I guess I was wrong.