Apple's latest move proves it is getting really serious about TV

Apple is getting serious about TV. Really serious. It's just hired two people from Sony that are the among the best in the business.

Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg have been snapped up by Apple to lead video programming worldwide for the company, and will be reporting to Eddy Cue.

While you may not know their names, you know the shows they had a big part in getting off the ground.

At Sony Pictures they were in charge of primetime TV programming for over a decade and greenlit a number of hugely successful shows, including Breaking Bad and its fantastic spin-off Better Call Saul, as well as more recently The Crown.

They know what makes a good TV show and they will no doubt already be thinking about what shows Apple needs to make its TV-making arm a success.

Show business

Currently Apple has treaded lightly with its TV output, announcing just two shows: Carpool Karaoke (set to debut 8 August and already a big hit on YouTube) and Planet of the Apps.

The first episode of Planet of the Apps aired recently through Apple Music and was met with lukewarm reviews.

Variety said the show "feels like something that was developed at a cocktail party, and not given much more rigorous thought or attention after the pitcher of mojitos was drained."

TechCrunch interviewed Jeremy Liew who's part of the show, however, and he said we should be watching it to get a glimpse of how pitch meetings work in the real-life tech world - only with added Will.i.am.

Expect the next round of show announcements to be a lot different, given Erlicht and Van Amburg's history of programming scripted drama.

Speaking about joining Apple, Zack Van Amburg said: “Apple has a relentless focus on delighting customers with their products. We will bring that same intention to Apple’s programming and we could not be more excited about what lies ahead."

All of this is not good news for traditional TV channel makers. They are already seeing their audiences diminish thanks to Netflix and Amazon's big TV push. Now Apple is gearing up to be more involved, there could be even more troubling times ahead.