- Apple’s senior vice president of services weighs in on the streaming service’s name change
- His comments point to major changes for Apple TV, particularly an ad-supported tier.
- This news comes after the streaming service removed the “plus” from its name.
Apple TV recently removed the “plus” from the name of its streaming service, confusing fans. I recently suggested the rebranding might be unnecessary, but a new interview suggested there was a reason for it.
Speaking on The Town podcast with Matthew Belloni, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said it was a “perfect time” for the Apple TV rebrand.
He revealed: “We put the most in there because we used it in our other services like iCloud+ and [Apple] News+, but we do that when we have a free service and then there’s a paid version. »
“We stayed consistent through that, but we all called it Apple TV, and we said given where we are today, this is the perfect time to do it, so let’s do it.”
Cue also clarified the confusion surrounding the name and how it already applies to other products in the Apple family.
“Our hardware is called Apple TV 4K for your TV,” he said. “I think it’s good, and the app is called Apple TV. It’s also called Apple TV on our third-party products, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem at all.”
However, this explanation has caused some confusion. Apple Fitness+ does not have a free tier and Apple Music is a paid service that does not offer a free tier and does not have a plus at the end of its name, indicating some inconsistencies within the brand.
From my perspective, this rebranding could suggest that more changes are coming to Apple TV, and that an ad-supported tier could be on the way.
Does Apple TV have an ad-supported tier?
For now, this is all speculation. We don’t know if any of the top streaming services will get ads or not, but given that its competitors do, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Apple TV is currently the only major streaming service without a cheaper, ad-supported tier, and only offers one plan. A monthly Apple TV subscription costs $12.99 / £9.99 / AU$15.99 or you can pay annually, which works out to $99.99 / £89.99 / AU$129.99.
A recent Apple TV price hike saw people paying 30% more, angering subscribers, leading me to predict the streamer may consider rolling out a cheaper tier.
By introducing a tier with ads, similar to other streaming giants like Netflix and Disney+, Apple could compete with competing ad-supported tiers.
Only time will tell if Apple TV will make this change, but based on recent events, I think it’s very likely.
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