- Apple’s senior vice president of services has weighed in on the streaming service’s name change.
- His comments point to some big changes for Apple TV, especially an ad-supported tier.
- This news comes after the streaming service dropped the ‘plus’ from its name.
Apple TV recently dropped the “plus” from the name of its streaming service, confusing fans. I recently suggested that the rebranding might be unnecessary, but a new interview hinted that there’s a reason for it.
Speaking on The Town with Matthew Belloni podcast, Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of services, said it was a “great moment” for the Apple TV rebrand.
He revealed: “We put the plus there because we have used it in our other services like iCloud+ and [Apple] News+, but we do it when we have a free service and then there is a paid version.”
“So we stayed consistent, but we all called it Apple TV and said, given where we are today, it’s a good 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 fine, and the app is called Apple TV. It’s also called Apple TV on our third-party products, so I don’t think that’s a problem at all.”
However, this explanation has caused further 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 sign at the end of its name, indicating some inconsistencies across 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.
Will Apple TV have an ad-supported tier?
For now, this is all speculation. We don’t know if one of the best streaming services will receive ads or not, but considering its competitors receive them, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Apple TV is currently the only major streaming service without a cheaper ad-supported tier and only has one plan. A monthly subscription to Apple TV 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 had people paying 30% more, angering subscribers, leading me to predict that the streamer could be planning to roll out a cheaper tier.
By introducing an ad-supported tier, similar to other streaming giants like Netflix and Disney+, Apple could compete with rival ad-supported tiers.
Only time will tell if Apple TV follows through with this change, but based on recent events, I think it’s very likely.
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