Leigh Vogel/Getty

The Streaming Wars

Richard Plepler lands at Apple

Moving the Market: Tim Cook and Eddy Cue are finalizing a deal to bring former HBO chief Richard Plepler to Apple TV+, bolstering their fledgling streaming service with one of the most influential executives in television, three sources with knowledge of the talks tell me.

• Plepler's RLP & Co. production unit will make TV shows, films and documentaries exclusively for Apple TV+. His mandate is to create the same prestige programming that made HBO the gold standard for pay TV.

• It's a comfortable fit for Plepler, who left HBO after the AT&T-Time Warner merger because the new bosses planned to deprive him of his autonomy and make an aggressive push for scale.

• Plepler will now be able to produce content at his own pace. The business of running Apple TV+ will still be left to Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, the two Sony Pictures alums building Apple's original content portfolio.

The big picture: This deal makes sense for all involved. Apple needs prestige content to fuel its streaming service; Plepler wants to produce prestige content, albeit at his own pace. Moreover, there is a mutual respect between Plepler and the Apple executives.

• The move also brings up a question industry insiders have been asking since Plepler left HBO in March: How did AT&T manage to lose the nation's top premium TV executive precisely at the moment that they were gearing up to launch their own streaming service?

• Should Plepler succeed at creating hit shows at Apple TV+ and win major awards, it will only highlight the error that AT&T made in alienating a media executive who could have shepherded the HBO brand through the larger changes taking place at AT&T.

• "Plepler was an Emmy magnet when he was in charge of HBO, with a knack for betting on shows that pleased critics and added subscribers," NYT's John Koblin rightly observes. "[He] was known as the ultimate deal maker."

What's next: Plepler and Apple executives declined to comment, but look for the deal to wrap up and be announced within the next few days. Meanwhile, the message from Apple to Hollywood is clear: "In case you were still wondering, yes, we're serious about TV."

Bloomberg/Getty

Bob Iger launches — with a glitch

Talk of Tinseltown: Bob Iger's Disney+ was hit by technical difficulties during its launch yesterday, a momentary setback amid largely positive reviews for the new service and especially for its new flagship show, "The Mandalorian."

• In a deft bit of corporate spin, the company attributed the technical glitch to higher-than-expected demand. "The consumer demand for Disney+ has exceeded our highest expectations," it said.

The big picture, via Recode's Peter Kafka: "It’s tempting to draw conclusions about a big media company’s inability to figure out streaming. ... But it is entirely possible that Disney’s launch-day problems are just that and won’t be around in a day or two."

⚔️ Big in Burbank ⚔️

The Mandalorian, reviewed: "All we really knew prior to Tuesday was that [the] title character was a Mandalorian... and that the first episode would contain a 'dramatic spoiler' for the larger universe," The Ringer's Miles Surrey writes.

• "We can [now] confirm: That Mandalorian kicks serious ass, and that 'dramatic spoiler' was, indeed, dramatic and completely out of left field."

Bloomberg/Getty

David Levy abruptly exits Nets

Big in Brooklyn: "David Levy is resigning as chief executive officer of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, abruptly walking away from the fast-growing sports operation owned by Alibaba Group billionaire Joe Tsai," Bloomberg's Scott Soshnick reports.

• "Levy, a 33-year veteran of Turner Broadcasting, was named to the CEO job less than two months ago. Oliver Weisberg, head of J Tsai Sports, will now take over as interim Nets chief."

• "In a statement, Weisberg suggested that Levy didn’t share Tsai’s vision for the organization. 'It’s important that ownership and management are completely aligned on our go-forward plan,' he said."

The big picture: There's something fishy here, which no one has been able to get to the bottom of. Levy joined the Nets, Barclays Center, Tsai’s family office and Tsai's holding company less than two months ago. Now, all of a sudden, he's out?

• Watch this space.

Market Links

• Mark Zuckerberg consolidates Facebook payments (CNN)

• Sundar Pichai fires staffer amid escalating tensions (Bloomberg)

• Ari Emanuel's Endeavor PAC has quietly gone dormant (Variety)

• Roula Khalaf will become top editor of Financial Times (FT)

• Andrew Phelps unveils a new Atlantic iOS app (Nieman)

Sean Gallup/Getty

Robert Allbritton's 'Protocol'

Big in the Beltway: Politico publisher Robert Allbritton has formally announced the upcoming launch of Protocol, the new tech news site that I first reported on in March and again last week.

• Protocol is a C-suite play, promising to "equip decision-makers and innovators in tech, legacy businesses and public policy with the reporting and insights they need to navigate a world in rapid change," the company said in its announcement.

• "The digital-only venture plans to lift off with ... several dozen journalists and business employees and a little more than $10 million under the hood," Vanity Fair's Joe Pompeo reports.

The big question: "Does the media really need yet another [tech] publication...?" Pompeo asks. "Can Protocol really deliver something unique that the rest of those players do not?"

• Tim Grieve, Protocol’s executive editor, says, "I don’t think anybody is, in a regular way, focusing on the people, power, and politics of tech."

The big picture: Grieve is wrong — see The Information, Recode, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Bloomberg, Axios, this newsletter, etc. — but I appreciate the bluster.

👴 What's next: "Ok, Boomer." Axios' Sara Fischer reports that AARP has quietly become "one of the largest media companies in the country," with $174 million in annual ad revenue.

See you tomorrow.