Apple TV+ Is Also Raising Its Prices
Apple TV+ is raising its subscription rate by $2 a month, joining a long list a streaming services that have hiked prices.
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Hold on to your metaphorical checkbooks, Ted Lasso fans: it’s about to cost more to keep your Apple TV+ subscription. Apple has announced that it is hiking the price of its service to $6.99 a month, up from the previous cost of $4.99 which had been in effect since its launch in November of 2019. In an attempt to stay profitable and competitive with other streaming services like Netflix and Disney+, the streamer is raising rates, just as it was starting to gain a competitive hold in the market.
If you subscribe to the annual plan, which offers a slight discount, the price will still jump from $49 a year to $69 a year. In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Apple TV+ justified the rate hike by pointing out it has grown its catalogue extensively, with a number of high-profile titles. “We introduced Apple TV+ at a very low price because we started with just a few shows and movies,” Apple said in the statement. “Three years later, Apple TV+ is home to an extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment from the world’s most creative storytellers.”
Although it is still among the cheaper streaming services available, Apple TV+ has been hampered by a limited catalogue of content. They do not carry movies or shows from other studios, and only feature content they produce.
However, that content is extremely popular, and has led to a quick rise in subscribers. Ted Lasso, available exclusively on the Apple TV+ service, won the Emmy for Best Comedy last year, and their original film CODA won Best Picture earlier this year, the first film from a streaming service to accomplish the feat. Other popular content on the service includes Jason Momoa’s See, Jennifer Aniston’s The Morning Show, and Severance, as well as films like Tom Hanks’ Finch and Greyhound.
Apple TV+ is the exclusive streaming home to Charlie Brown/Peanuts content, including the holiday specials A Charlie Brown Christmas and It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. That led to backlash in recent years as TV viewers realized the specials, which have become a sort of annual cultural tradition, would not be available for free on broadcast TV. In response, Apple has made A Charlie Brown Christmas available for a free broadcast on PBS in recent years, and will offer It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown for free through its app and service, even to non-subscribers.
That content, and the overall appeal of the Apple brand, has led to a subscriber base of over 40 million. Apple TV+ still lags far behind the larger streamers, however, as Netflix boasts over 200 million subscribers, and Disney+ has over 100 million.
With the rising costs of inflation and a competitive market, however, rate hikes are a reality across the board, and to combat possible customer pushback, many streamers are taking additional avenues. Netflix is cracking down on account sharing as it continues to lose subscribers, and is offering a discounted version of its service with ads, something Apple TV+ has yet to do. Netflix’s ad-based service will be available for the first time in November, and has already come under criticism for only offering 720p resolution (which isn’t even true high definition but better than what DVD offers) and about 90% of its total content catalogue (due to high licensing costs for some content).
The Apple One bundle, which includes Apple TV+, Apple Arcade (their video game service) and Apple Music (the former iTunes service) is going up by the same $2 as well, to $16.95. The rise applies to other Apple bundle plans as well.
