Apple is jumping into the original content game, with plans to spend $1 billion on original series and films over the next year, reported The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday citing anonymous sources.

Apple has been ramping up its production capabilities, hiring Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht away from Sony Pictures Television and this week hiring Matt Cherniss, formerly of WGN America and Tribune Studios, to lead the company’s development efforts, reporting to Amburg and Erlicht.

Up to this point, Apple has released two series, Planet of the Apps in June and Carpool Karaoke on August 8.

Meanwhile, Variety reported this week that Netflix plans to up its original content spend to $7 billion next year, dwarfing Apple’s plans. Netflix this week hired Shonda Rhimes away from her longtime home of ABC Studios where she produces such series as Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal and How to Get Away with Murder. While those shows will continue to air on ABC until they conclude and other projects from Rhimes remain in development for ABC, new product from Rhimes will air on Netflix. Conversely, ABC corporate parent Disney last week said it would not renew its programming deal with Netflix and would instead start its own streaming service.

Amazon plans to spend $4.5 billion on original content in 2017 and Time Warner’s HBO spends about $2 billion a year, according to the WSJ. That publication also noted that Apple’s total cash holdings are $261.5 billion, so the company has the wherewithal to really amp up its spending should it decide to.

All of that just contributes to FX CEO John Landgraf’s view that working in the TV industry has become a “titanic struggle” with deep-pocketed Silicon Valley companies such as Netflix, Amazon and soon Apple and Facebook creating a programming arms race that threatens to push smaller players out of business.

RELATED: How FX is Struggling, but Succeeding, as TV Transforms

READ MORE: The Wall Street Journal, Variety

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