Apple’s upcoming Apple TV+ streaming-video service probably will add $9.99 a month to your media budget when it launches in November, according to a story Monday evening from Bloomberg, which cited unnamed Apple sources to report that Apple is leaning toward that $10 rate—with a free trial likely available, too. The piece said Apple declined to comment, as is its wont.
The Apple TV+ service, introduced by the Cupertino, California, company at a celebrity-saturated event in March, will spotlight exclusive content from and feature such boldface names as Steven Spielberg, Oprah Winfrey, Kumail Nanjiani and Jennifer Aniston.
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A $10 monthly rate for such fare as the space-race drama “For All Mankind” and the journalism drama “The Morning Show” would land Apple TV+ between the $6.99 price of Disney’s upcoming Disney+ service and the $12.99 cost of Netflix’s HD-streaming plan.
One analyst’s quick reaction: no deal.
“I think the price is way too high given that Apple has no library content—it’s just the originals,” said Alan Wolk, co-founder and lead analyst at TV[R]EV, in an email. “So, people may subscribe for a month or two but that is it—they will have watched the series they want to watch (I’m thinking Apple is doing all at once delivery a la Netflix) and then there’s nothing left to watch.”
Apple TV+ will require the Apple TV app, part of Apple’s $179-and-up box of the same name and included in iOS. But, the same software is now appearing on a small, but expanding set of connected TVs from such vendors as LG, Vizio and Samsung. It’s also set to ship for streaming-media players from Roku and Amazon.
Those last options should reduce the hardware cost, but Wolk noted that Apple will then have to coax Roku and Fire TV users to install the app. He suggested instead that Apple take a lesson from its music-hardware history and ship a cheap streaming stick.
“They had figured it out in the past with the iPod nano,” he said. “Not sure why TV keeps tripping them up.”