Apple is set to announce a collection of new apps and operating systems that will replace its 18-year-old transactional platform, iTunes.

According to Bloomberg, which revealed Apple’s plans ahead of its Worldwide Developers Conference this week, the technology company is launching dedicated music, TV and podcasts apps that will replace iTunes functions.

Management of devices like iPhones and Apple Watches will now occur through Apple Music, reports say. And future versions of the operating system on Mac computers will sync these mobile devices, as Apple works to unify the iOS platform ecosystem of its mobile products with the MacOS found in its computers. Apple is also set to announce a major upgrade to MacOS at its WWDC.

Launched at the height of Steve Jobs’ second reign at Apple, iTunes has been the hub for Apple device and computer users to download and manage media and software. In fact, the broad-reaching iTunes platform has been widely criticized over the years for being clunky and difficult to use. 

Last week, Reddit users began noticing that iTunes social media posts on Facebook and Instagram had been deleted. 

Netflix has officially cut Apple’s iTunes Store out of its business.

“We no longer support iTunes as a method of payment for new members,” a Netflix spokesperson told MCN in an email. “Existing members who currently use iTunes as a method of payment can continue to do so. Apple is a valued partner with whom we work closely to deliver great entertainment to members around the world across a range of devices including the iPhone and Apple TV.

Related: Netflix Cuts Apple Out of In-App Purchase Revenue

Apple recoups 15% - 30% of all subscription revenue, current and moving forward, when a user signs up for a service through its iTunes App Store and uses its billing system.

Last summer, Netflix began testing a scheme whereby new users had to sign up directly on the streaming service’s website, thus bypassing iTunes. Last week, Venture Beat reported that Netflix had gone ahead with the plan.

For both Netflix and Apple, the revenue consequences are significant.

According to Sensor Tower, which tracks the app business, the Netflix app was the No. 1 grossing app in the U.S. for Apple’s App Store in November. The Netflix app generated $243.7 million in the third quarter, a 90% year over year increase.

Netflix has collected an estimated $1.4 billion through app marketplaces on Apple and Google to date. 

Netflix is testing a new app for Apple smartphones and tablets that lets the streaming giant avoid the charges Apple applies to companies using its app store to sell subscription-based services.

As first reported by Indian tech news site Gadgets 360, Apple is testing in 30 countries an app that gives customers the option to go directly to Netflix via their iOS mobile device web browser and sign up for the streaming service with no middleman.

“We are constantly innovating and testing new signup approaches on different platforms to better understand what our members like,” Netflix said in a statement. “Based on what we learn, we work to improve the Netflix experience for members everywhere.”

Related: Netflix Orders Season Three of ‘GLOW’

Apple’s app store generated $11.5 billion, much of it coming through money billed to companies that distribute their apps through the virtual store.

When a customer makes an in-app purchase of a Netflix subscription—or any other service—through Apple’s app store, the tech giant with the trillion-dollar market cap recoups 30% of the first-year subscription price, and 15% for subsequent years. Some critics of this policy have referred to the charge as a "tax."

Notably, Apple restricted in May the ability for customers to sign up within its app store for subscriptions through Google Play. Apple now tells those customers to go directly to Google Play over the internet. 

It’s been called a Shark Tank for ganjapreneurs, but The Marijuana Show’s producers, Wendy Robbins and Karen Paull, think of their online reality program as more of a dolphin tank. Budding weed capitalists who come in seeking investments for, say, a car with a body made from cannabis or a seed-to-sale inventory system for marijuana dispensaries always get encouragement and help achieving their dreams.

Starting July 8, Robbins and Paull will see their own efforts pay off with broader over-the-top distribution of the show, on platforms including Amazon Prime, iTunes, Google Play and Xbox. The pair held auditions June 14 in New York for the show’s third season and said going OTT worked for them. “In terms of the [traditional] network model, they pretty much wanted to control the creative and take [us] out,” Paull said. “We want to retain the brand, the marketing, and really the back end is where we make a lot of the money” via relationships with invested companies.

Feedback from meetings, via show developers, included recommendations to change the name, and “they wanted us to make it [dumber],” Robbins said. “You know, like we are goofy people … and it’s so opposite of what we’re trying to bring in, which is a financial, educated, medicinal show.”

Half-hour episodes from season 2 will be available on the new OTT platforms first, and the producers said they have pitched outlets including Hulu, DirecTV and Netflix as well.

To find out where auditions will be held this summer — including in Portland, Ore.; Seattle; and San Diego — and to see a sample of the program, go to themarijuanashow.com.

While most televised professional and college sports games can be watched online on multiple devices, a good number of major pay-per-view ring-sports events have yet to enter the digital arena.

FITE TV is trying to change that. The mobile app, developed by digital media company Flipps Media, currently offers live boxing events, as well as pro wrestling and mixed martial arts content, streamed to mobile phones. The app is available via iTunes or Google Play and gives users the option of watching on their devices or connecting directly to a smart TV.

Through distribution deals with such event providers as Golden Boy Promotions (boxing), TNA (pro wrestling) and World Series of Fighting (MMA), FITE TV is streaming an average of eight live free and fee-based ring sports events per week.

FITE TV CEO Kosta Jordanov recently spoke to Multichannel News programming editor R. Thomas Umstead about the service, as well as his aspirations to eventually offer fight fans the opportunity to watch the biggest PPV ring-sports events online. An edited excerpt of their conversation follows.

RELATED:Spring's Live Ring Sports on Cable and Broadcast

MCN:Do people actually want to watch a fight on a mobile phone?

Kosta Jordanov: It depends on the content. The trend is that people are shifting to short-form clips, and for those people who watch that content, the size of the screen doesn’t matter that much.

When it comes to sports, however, people want to watch live sports on a large screen. For a three-hour show that you’ve paid $30 to $40 for, the small screen doesn’t work. You want to sit with friends, drink a beer and watch a fight on the large screen. That’s what’s so attractive about FITE TV. The biggest differentiator is our technical ability to connect the stream and bring it to the big screen. We don’t have any hardware for a specific box to be connected to the TV, and there’s no need for a cable subscription.

Basically, we do IP delivery over the big screen using the mobile device as a remote-control interface. The only requirement is that the mobile device and the TV have to be on the same network. The stream goes through a cloud service that we support going to the big screen.

MCN:What are some of the rights deals that you have with ring sports providers?

KJ: We already have deals with 35 event providers on the wrestling, MMA and boxing side. We have a deal with TNA [and] Ring of Honor, on the wrestling side; Legacy [Fighting Championship] and WSOF [World Series of Fighting] on the mixed-martial-arts side, and Golden Boy Promotions and Integrated Sports for boxing. There really isn’t a reason for a content partner not to work for us — it’s all upside for everyone involved.

We’re just one more distributor that they have to work with, but we have a slightly different reach. We’re reaching cord-cutters; people outside the country. We also help our partners with the promotion of the event through Facebook and Twitter ads, sponsored ads. We can also provide content to specific countries.

MCN:Do you see a time when you’ll be able to stream a major PPV boxing event from HBO or Showtime?

KJ: I think it’s doable. I think we would probably start with some distribution outside of the prime window, or it could start with streaming of prelims, weigh-ins and other supporting events leading up to the main-event card. Again, we’re just another Dish or DirecTV; we’re one more provider that can help provide revenue.

MCN:How does a consumer purchase an event to stream?

KJ: Through the FITE TV app, you can purchase the event just like you would through iTunes or Google Play. Once purchased, you get a confirmation from both FITE TV and from iTunes or Google Play.

MCN:The knock on streaming has been the piracy factor — there’s a lot of stealing of the signal when it’s on the Web. How can you assure event providers that you can eliminate piracy?

KJ: We have a very secure content-protection platform that we’ve been working on for the last four years. Through this platform, we’ve streamed content from CBS, Bloomberg [Television] and some of the movie studios that really have high requirements for signal protection. That said, every single signal can be hacked, but we’re actually more safe than traditional systems. It’s harder to steal the content from us than it is from cable.

MCN:Are there any plans to extend your content beyond ring sports?

KJ: We’re very focused on ring sports — we don’t have any plans to go to any areas until we own the space. After that, we may look at other events.

Adding a key content offering to its lineup of apps, Roku has launched Google Play Movies & TV to its Channel Store in the U.S., Ireland and Canada. 

Google Play Movies & TV, also offered on Google’s own TV-connected Chromecast and new Android TV-powered Nexus Player (as well as via apps for Android and iOS tablets and smartphones), offers a mix of new movie releases, some before their DVR and Blu-ray windows, as well as TV shows for purchase and rental.

Google’s service competes with electronic sell-through services such as iTunes, VUDU, Amazon, as well as EST products from Comcast and Verizon Communications. .

Roku said the new offering is available on “current generation” players, meaning those introduced after June 2011 (Roku 3, Roku 2, Roku 1, Roku Streaming Sticks, Roku LT, Roku 2 HD, Roku 2 XD,  Roku 2 XS, and Roku HD). Support for Roku’s platform for connected TVs will be “coming soon.” Roku has shipped more than 10 million devices in the U.S., but hasn’t revealed international sales figures.

Roku, which adds Google Play Movies & TV to a roster of more than 1,600 channels/apps, is also supporting the “Gift from Google” section that’s currently offering a free HD copy of X-Men to users who sign up for  a Google Play account.