Hot on the heels of a similar Netflix price increase, the cost of an Apple TV Plus subscription has just gone up for people in various countries around the world. And this is becoming a regular enough occurrence for it to be a problem.
It was just a week ago that I waxed poetic about the great value that Apple TV Plus represented to streaming fans, especially those who had one eye on the price increase at Netflix and were pondering where they could cut their costs. Now, Apple has followed up with a price bump of its own. And not only did it just make my week-old piece redundant, but it also managed to double the cost of its streaming subscription within a year.
This latest price increase comes a year to the day since Apple increased the price from just $4.99 per month to $6.99 per month. Now, you'll pay $9.99 per month for the same subscription. And Apple TV Plus isn't alone — Apple also increased the price of its Apple News Plus ($9.99 to $12.99) and Apple Arcade ($4.99 to $6.99) services as well. As a result, Apple One is going up, too. Apple's individual, family, and premier plans, which were $16.95, $22.95, and $32.95, will now cost $19.95, $25.95, and $37.95 respectively. That's almost $40 a month for Apple stuff. Which begs the question — is it time that Apple offered something for people who can't stretch to $9.99 a month to some watch TV?
It's time for ads
With Apple TV Plus subscribers now paying twice as much as they were a year ago, it's probably fair to say that there will be some early adopters who find themselves with more than a touch of sticker shock right now. But there's an answer, and Apple only needs to look at an old friend to know what it is.
Disney Plus launched an ad-supported tier back in December of 2022, giving fans of the mouse (or more likely, Star Wars and Marvel) the chance to watch the same content while paying less. The ad-free tier costs $10.99 per month while those willing to watch some ads pay $7.99 per month.
With that in mind, it isn't beyond the realms of reason that Apple could launch an ad-supported version of Apple TV Plus and charge, say, $4.99 per month for it. That would be great value and one that would be hard to beat.
I'm not the first person to ponder this, either. Just a couple of months ago our own Becca Caddy suggested that Apple might be missing a trick by ignoring ad-supported options. And there's already evidence that Apple at least explored the idea of ad-supported streaming.
Content isn't free
It's important to remember that all of the content Apple TV Plus streams definitely costs money to make. There's the $2.5 billion MLS deal, not to mention the millions spent on making the pre-recorded content. And then there's the deal that brought Lionel Messi to the MLS with Apple reportedly handing over a cut of its revenue to make it happen.
This is all to say that I get it, making great content isn't cheap. But Apple also must understand that its customers aren't cash cows, just waiting to be milked. And for some, $9.99 per month is enough to make them think that maybe they don't need to see that new run of Slow Horses or Severance season 2 quite so much. And that'd be a real shame for all concerned.
