Five years ago this week… Apple tried to turn its video arm around by recruiting two big-money former Sony Pictures Television presidents. Despite the high-profile hires, Faultline felt that Apple’s TV plans were doomed, largely due to a toothless original content strategy that emerged after endless dithering on whether to pursue a streaming TV bundle instead. The last we heard from Apple on user numbers was in July 2021, revealing less than 20 million subscribers in North America. Fast forward to 2022, Apple’s latest sports rights push has high hopes of triggering a subscriber upswing. — Netflix’s ad-supported experiment is exploring licensing ad tech from Google or NBCUniversal’s FreeWheel – or possibly both – according to inside sources speaking…