Apple is having a big event on Monday — March 25 — at its Steve Jobs theater in Cupertino. You can expect this keynote presentation to be different from others in the past because it’ll be a little bit of step into the unknown for Apple. If you’ve been on news pulse this week, you’ll know that Apple shared some pretty exciting announcements already. It released new-and-updated iMacs, new-and-updated iPads and new-and-updated AirPods. Basically, it got all its new hardware announcements out of the way to clear the air for Monday’s announcement — a brand new video streaming service.

It’s been known for a while that Apple would be throwing its hat in the ring with other video streaming services, such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Hulu. The company already makes several shows, such as Carpool Karaoke and Planet of the Apps (which haven’t been great successes, admittedly); plus
Apple made waves at CES this year when it announced partnerships to integrated its HomeKit and AirPlay into pretty much every new smart TV coming out in 2019. Essentially, you won’t need an Apple TV to access Apple’s TV services.

The key thing with any new video service is content, and it’s been reported that Apple budget for original content is more than $1 billion; you can check out the expansive list of films and shows that Apple is making on The Verge. It’s a big chunk of change, but not that much if you think that Netflix reportedly spent between $8 and $13 billion on original content in 2018, and could spend $15 billion in 2019.

A notable difference between Apple’s video service and something like Netflix is that Apple is expected to announce partnership plans with other premium subscription services. According to a recent Recode article, “it will also be able to offer its own bundles — for instance, it could offer a package of HBO, Showtime, and Starz at a price that’s lower than you’d pay for each pay TV service on its own.” There’s also a chance that Apple could bundle its other services, such as Apple Music, with its TV subscription plan. If Apple could find a way to bundle other channels into their service, it could be a great incentive for people looking to cut the cord.

Still, we don’t exactly know what Apple’s streaming video service will look like or how people would access it — there’s speculation that the service would be integrated into Apple’s current TV app, although there’s no TV app for Mac right now. Another thing we don’t know is how much the new service will cost. $10 a month seems like a safe place to start, but given that there will likely me copious bundle deals, that could go upwards. We’ll have to wait until Monday to know more.

To catch up on Apple’s hardware news this week, check out our articles below.

Apple’s New AirPods Are Better in So Many Ways

The new AirPods come with a number of welcome improvements, including faster pairing speeds, more talk time and improved microphone clarity on calls. They can also wirelessly charge.

Apple’s New iMacs Are Twice as Powerful as Before.

Apple is shrinking the gap between its entry-level iMacs and super high-end iMac Pros.

Everything You Need to Know About Apple’s New iPads

The iPad Air and iPad mini are decked out with Retina displays, A12 Bionic processors and Apple Pencil support.