For the second year in a row Apple has increased the price of their premium tv and film streaming service, Apple TV+ while continuing to only produce original content.
When Apple TV+ launched in the fall of 2019, the service cost $4.99 US a month and anyone buying a Mac or iPhone received a full-year of streaming for free. Last October Apple raised the price by $2 US a month.
The price increase is even higher in other countries. In Canada the service launched at $5.99 CAD/month, increased to $8.99 CAD/month last October, and have now been increased to $12.99 CAD/month. While customers in the US have seen a 200% increase, Canadians are paying 217% more. Compared to Apple Music where the price was until recently on par, and has only increased to $10.99 CAD/month, the gap is far wider for the streaming service.
Also at the time of writing Disney+ is available starting at $7.99 CAD/month with ads, a tier Apple does not offer with TV+ and in fact there’s only one TV+ tier. Disney+ of course has a fair amount of library content, not just from the Disney vault, but also 20th Century Fox television (all seasons of the Simpsons), a good amount of the ABC television back catalogue, and National Geographic content. Apple has yet to purchase a content library by acquiring a studio, as Amazon did with their MGM purchase, nor does Apple seem inclined to licence content as most streamers do. Netflix may spend a lot of original content, and yet they still license additional programmes to boost viewing options.
Industry watchers point out that music streaming services cost more for the company with increased use, while the television production was already paid for upfront. Getting more people to watch your shows is better for your service compared with music streaming.
With streamers trending to offer cheaper ad supported tiers, Apple TV+ is the last major streamer offering the single tier. One option Apple could explore would be to create a Sports+ add-on tier or bundle, moving the expensive sports programming to a separate service supported my engaged subscribers. This strategy works for Disney+ offering ESPN as an add-on (as it also does with Hulu), at least in the US. And it makes sense because sports rights are often country based—Apple could offer a great sports streaming service responsive to each country.