This focus on live content is surprising. At the moment, all sessions on Fitness+ are pre-recorded, and it isn’t immediately clear what benefits would be delivered by having instructors perform live, other than an intangible sense of occasion or excitement. Conversely, any number of things could go wrong when delivering the session live, running the gamut from a verbal slip or timing overrun to a trainer injury. It feels risky.
As a skeptical 9to5Mac observes, similar risk-reward calculus was likely behind the switch from Apple’s famous live press events to today’s mostly pre-recorded presentations. The company loves to maintain its squeaky-clean public image and this can be done far more easily if the content it releases has been recorded, produced, and thoroughly vetted beforehand.
Another clue is the sentence “Some evening/weekend work may occasionally be required.” If Apple were planning a live content push, we would logically expect a lot of this to be broadcast, and therefore filmed, in the evening and at weekends, when more viewers are free to take part. But Apple says the producer’s services will be required only occasionally at these times.
In this context, the mention of “live-to-tape” production may be a key clue. Fitness+ is likely looking to create more content that’s presented as live, even if the content itself was recorded in advance. The live-to-tape part means it would be recorded in a single take corresponding to the length of the session, much as New Year’s Eve programming is often recorded as live in early December. Minor mistakes would be left in, with minimal editing used to smooth over medium-sized issues; only something catastrophic would result in a reshoot. The session could then potentially be broadcast as a one-off to mark a specific date and encourage real-time participation and a sense of community.
Other fitness companies, such as Peloton, regularly broadcast live classes as a benefit of their membership.
Late last year Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Fitness+ was felt to be underwhelming and was under review by management. Something needs to change. It will be interesting to see how much of a risk Apple is willing to take in order to give Fitness+ a shakeup.
