Going Live? Apple Fitness+ Job Listing Hints at a Studio Shakeup

Although it’s arguably become one of the iPhone maker’s quieter services, Apple Fitness+ is actually still going strong behind the scenes, and a recent job posting hints that Apple might have even bigger things in store for it.

The folks at MacRumors unearthed a job listing today for a Fitness+ Studio Producer. While the posting has been up for nearly a month, what makes it interesting is the requirement for live production experience:

The listing goes on to describe the ideal candidate as someone who can “push the boundaries of what live fitness content can be,” and be part of a “team redefining live production at Apple.”

Of course, it’s unclear if this means Apple is exploring actual live sessions or simply wants “the energy of a live production environment” (as the job listing also says). It’s hard to imagine Fitness+ pivoting to an entirely live format, but it’s possible the company could be planning to run live events with its trainers for special occasions.

In November, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reported that Apple Fitness+ was at a crossroads, calling it one of Apple’s “weakest digital offerings” that doesn’t earn much money for the company. While insiders say it has a small but loyal enough fan base that Apple isn’t about to pull the plug, it’s been exploring ways to improve it.

With Apple working on a new AI-powered “Health+” service, some analysts believe it could become part of a more holistic health and fitness service that combines both the current video workout feature with health coaching and other related features.

While Apple has doubled down on new workouts and global expansion, those are still mostly evolutions of the service that launched in 2020. Whether Apple needs to do more is open to debate, and the company has shown it’s not afraid to lose a ton of money on new initiatives, it does seem likely that Apple would be considering what else it can do with the service to try to attract more subscribers.

The timing is also more than coincidental, as Apple Fitness+ was previously helmed by long-time chief operating officer Jeff Williams — an unusual arrangement that was likely tied to Williams’ oversight of the Apple Watch project from the start. However, following his retirement, Apple shuffled its executive ranks to reassign these various pieces to their more logical departments: the Apple Watch hardware under senior hardware VP (and soon-to-be CEO) John Ternus, watchOS under Craig Federighi’s software division, and Health and Fitness under services boss Eddy Cue.

That move also merged Health and Fitness into a single portfolio, headed up by Dr. Sumbul Desai, who was previously only responsible for the health side. That consolidation makes it even more likely that Apple will bring Fitness+ more tightly into the Health portfolio.

Gurman has continued to report that the future of Fitness+ is under review, but says “there’s no telling what will end up happening there.” He maintains a blending of Health and Fitness+ “in some fashion,” but hasn’t said anything about the possibility of live content.

[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]