Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, and Apple News+ Receiving Price Increases

[webkit]

Yes, in a vacuum this wouldn't be too much of an increase for most users. The problem is it isn't a vacuum. Just about every company is turning their products in to subscription services, and the cumulative costs of such services add up quickly.

Throw in the fact that these services receive price hikes (nearly) every year, and eventually one side is going to flinch. Will Apple ever stop raising these prices, because I can't imagine people are going to want to spend $5 a day just for Apple TV+ when there are other, more important expenses.

Yes, there are a lot of subscription products today but there have been a lot of subscription products for ages. Before the Internet provided access to a lot of free content, people would have to subscribe to multiple newspapers and magazines and there were many. There were also premium channel subscriptions like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Disney Channel, etc. with each potentially costing over $30/month in today's dollars on top of the cost of the required (to get the premium channels) cable/satellite TV plan.

For music, people would have to buy physical media when just one CD could cost over $40 in today's dollars. For movies, just one video rental could be $5 to $6 in today's dollars on top of a potential video store (one or more) membership cost.

Plus there were the costs of the hardware (television, VCR, CD player, etc.) which were much more expensive than equivalent items today.

Yes, there are a lot of subscriptions but even with recent price hikes they can be much more affordable than what it would cost to be able to access the same amount of "content" decades ago.

 

[Joe Dohn]

Yes, there are a lot of subscription products today but there have been a lot of subscription products for ages. Before the Internet provided access to a lot of free content, people would have to subscribe to multiple newspapers and magazines and there were many. There were also premium channel subscriptions like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, Disney Channel, etc. with each potentially costing over $30/month in today's dollars on top of the cost of the required (to get the premium channels) cable/satellite TV plan.

For music, people would have to buy physical media when just one CD could cost over $40 in today's dollars. For movies, just one video rental could be $5 to $6 in today's dollars on top of a potential video store (one or more) membership cost.

Plus there were the costs of the hardware (television, VCR, CD player, etc.) which were much more expensive than equivalent items today.

But guess what! Production quality was usually much higher too, especially in news channels / productions. E.g, big journalistic productions require some money to do independent investigations.

Instead, when you charge your consumers too little, you are restricted to parroting your news from the same news sources everywhere.

Things have balanced out a little because automation has cut some costs, but this can only go so far.

 

[Joe Dohn]

That being said, Apple services (except maybe music) are usually NOT worth it. I mean, just look at the state of Apple Arcade compared to, e.g, Xbox cloud gaming (which usually has EXCELLENT connection), or Steam (so many more games it's not even funny, and some work 15+ years after release).

 

[hooptyuber]

News+ ads
> I remove them in News+, Artifact and most other apps with AdGuard Pro & VPN, but don’t just leave the VPN on all the time because it freezes up several times a day and you have to change the VPN server to fix it.

Try Mullvad. I've had very good results with their VPN.

 

[pmbooks]

Looks like I will be canceling my Apple TV and Arcade from my Apple One sub, and will keep Apple Music and 50GB iCloud storage.

Apple News wouldn't be so bad if Apple didn't infest it with ads.

Yeah, I'll be cancelling my One Premiere and just keeping my 2GB storage. The additional $27 for TV (seen all the shows I want to for now, too few new shows to warrant it), Arcade (don't play), News (don't use it), and Music apps haven't measured up to expectations, and Fitness, don't use.

 

[Apple_Robert]

Yeah, I'll be cancelling my One Premiere and just keeping my 2GB storage. The additional $27 for TV (seen all the shows I want to for now, too few new shows to warrant it), Arcade (don't play), News (don't use it), and Music apps haven't measured up to expectations, and Fitness, don't use.

I like Apple Music for the CarPlay ability and sound quality. I don’t mess with features outside of making playlists.

 

[AnthroMatt]

Yeah, I'll be cancelling my One Premiere and just keeping my 2GB storage. The additional $27 for TV (seen all the shows I want to for now, too few new shows to warrant it), Arcade (don't play), News (don't use it), and Music apps haven't measured up to expectations, and Fitness, don't use.

I am doing the same.

 

[ukbootlegs]

Yeah I have yet to meet a person who actually subs to News+ outside of being in their Apple One sub.

I do, but will be cancelling

 

[ukbootlegs]

Apple News is the weirdest service... in the UK I really recommend the Libby App - it's free with a library card and has many free magazine subscriptions you can download etc https://libbyapp.com/

How do I do this without a library card? No library near me to sign up. They closed it

 

[mlody]

I canceled Apple One months ago. I only subscribe to 2TB iCloud storage and Music. I have Apple Arcade thru Verizon, so I am not missing out. I will subscribe to Apple TV+ for 1 month to catch up on like 2 shows and won't need it for another 12 months.

I wish Apple had 1 TB storage option as we are at 750 GB at this point and won't be needing much more for a long time.

 

[I7guy]

Exactly.

What's the big fuss if it's an extra 8.3 cents this year, extra 10c on top of that next year and then an extra 14c the year after.

The power of compounding price rises? Who cares.

Exactly. Price increases are inevitable. And unlike food, health care, electricity, etc consumer discretionary products and services are optional. Everyone has to evaluate whether the price and value is appropriate for them.

 

[Macalicious2011]

Exactly. Price increases are inevitable. And unlike food, health care, electricity, etc consumer discretionary products and services are optional. Everyone has to evaluate whether the price and value is appropriate for them.

Last year I figured out that there isn't exactly enough time in the week to maximise 2-3 streaming subscriptions, xbox gamepass subscription on top of watching youtube, spending time with kids, engaging with my partner in the evening, doing chores and life admin.

Tha average Joe does not need 3-4 streaming subscriptions.

As a result i cut down my subscriptions to zero in order to focus on gaming. its nice as playinf one game at a time means that I know what to consumer and don't need to spend 30-60 min finding something to watch.

My only subscription is apple TV+ which is free. However I am not discrediting netflix. They have produced amazing shows on the past......which I have now watched. Last months I dipped into netflix just to watch top boy season 3. For that I borrowed my GFs account.

 

[eTip]

Sorry, Apple TV+ not worth $10 a month. Thanks, Apple for making it so much easier to reduce my streaming subscription costs. Is $3 a month going to break the bank? Of course not. Are there shows I’ll miss from ATV? Sure, a few. Heck, I’ve not even caught up on Ted Lasso. But they’ll be adding content for at least another year or two before they start removing anything. So if I take a year off and subscribe again, I’m not going to miss much.

So I’m being sincere when I say thanks for making this easier. Instead of paying ~$36 more a year, I’ll save ~$84 (based on the previous $6.99/mo).

 

[eTip]

If they’re testing what the market will bear, they might be in for a shock.

I did my part. Within seconds of getting the email about the price increase. Saved me $ in the long run because it made my decision SO easy.

 

[jimmysalg]

I downgraded from Apple One Premier to Apple Music (student subscription - luckily had to do a short university course for work) and iCloud 2TB after the last price hike. I’m totally priced out now and can’t see myself ever resubscribing at £37pm.

Have three simplified tiers where I can choose which subscriptions and I’d rethink.

I'm curious how you went about doing that.....I'm trying to downgrade apple one family to singe Apple Music, and it will only let me choose Apple Music Family

 

[Greedyapples]

So, a company that made $23 Billion Profit on $89.5B Revenue (Apple Reports 4Q 2023 Results) needs to increase their subscription prices? Okay, got it. Someone has to fund the lifestyles of the executives.

 

[Apple_Robert]

So, a company that made $23 Billion Profit on $89.5B Revenue (Apple Reports 4Q 2023 Results) needs to increase their subscription prices? Okay, got it. Someone has to fund the lifestyles of the executives.

How do you know that the cost to Apple to run those different services didn't go up?

 

[webkit]

So, a company that made $23 Billion Profit on $89.5B Revenue (Apple Reports 4Q 2023 Results) needs to increase their subscription prices? Okay, got it. Someone has to fund the lifestyles of the executives.

It doesn't necessarily matter how profitable the company is overall. The financials of each product/service should be evaluated independently. If Apple TV+ is losing money, for example, a subscription price increase can be justified regardless of how profitable iPhones, the App Store, or other things may be.

 

[bobcomer]

It doesn't necessarily matter how profitable the company is overall. The financials of each product/service should be evaluated independently. If Apple TV+ is losing money, for example, a subscription price increase can be justified regardless of how profitable iPhones, the App Store, or other things may be.

I agree, but even then, it's apple's product and they can price it however they want.

It's our personal choice to say whether that increase in price is worth it to us. And it isn't for me, not enough value, so I cancelled news, arcade, and TV. (I cancelled TV and arcade a long time ago, they were never worth it to me)

 

[frou]

UK Apple One price just increased to £18.95/month. I cancelled and went back to just 50GB iCloud at £0.99/month.

 

[Dave245]

The price increase on Apple One Premier is an extra £4 a month. It’s still not a bad price, considering Apple TV+ has some great content in my opinion. Love The Morning Show, Slow Horses Platonic, Still Up and a load of others. Really looking forward to the Napoleon film. Apple Music is great and I share it with my best friend, and Apple Fitness Plus is awesome, even with the price hike I save money vs having a gym membership.

Apple Arcade I don’t really use that often, I have a PS5 and Xbox one. News Plus I use just for a couple of magazines. 2TB storage is overkill for me but I also share it with my best friend.

 

[Sixth Street]

The price increase also had me evaluating my mindless subscription to Apple One family, and I realized I only really need 2TB (mostly for unlimited Home Kit Secure Video), Music, and Fitness+ (bought annually), so I downgraded to those 3 services. Not a real material level of savings but it's at least a small principled vote with the wallet.

 

[msackey]

I just canceled my News+ subscription. Sorry, not going to pay $155 a year and meanwhile still have huge ads. We’re done.

 

[ukbootlegs]

The price increase on Apple One Premier is an extra £4 a month. It’s still not a bad price, considering Apple TV+ has some great content in my opinion. Love The Morning Show, Slow Horses Platonic, Still Up and a load of others. Really looking forward to the Napoleon film. Apple Music is great and I share it with my best friend, and Apple Fitness Plus is awesome, even with the price hike I save money vs having a gym membership.

Apple Arcade I don’t really use that often, I have a PS5 and Xbox one. News Plus I use just for a couple of magazines. 2TB storage is overkill for me but I also share it with my best friend.

I desperately want to like Apple Music and pay for the top tier plan with fitness+. But I just can’t get on with it. I love the Spotify daily curated playlists, and now you have the AI DJ thing too. On top of that, they’ve just thrown in audiobooks which I’m yet to try

I’ve tried a few free Apple Music subs, but find myself even during my trials going back to Spotify. Even the ability to look at similar artists to what Tim currently listening to, or by say browsing the beatles, and then seeing similar artists

i dont know if I’m missing something dreadfully obvious but it’s what’s stopping me signing up to the top tier plan. I want news and fitness and music. None of the tv or storage matters to me

 

[Dave245]

I desperately want to like Apple Music and pay for the top tier plan with fitness+. But I just can’t get on with it. I love the Spotify daily curated playlists, and now you have the AI DJ thing too. On top of that, they’ve just thrown in audiobooks which I’m yet to try

I’ve tried a few free Apple Music subs, but find myself even during my trials going back to Spotify. Even the ability to look at similar artists to what Tim currently listening to, or by say browsing the beatles, and then seeing similar artists

i dont know if I’m missing something dreadfully obvious but it’s what’s stopping me signing up to the top tier plan. I want news and fitness and music. None of the tv or storage matters to me

I like Apple Music because it's on my iPhone, everything is integrated well. I've tried Spotify in the past and just prefer Apple Music. I've even had it on my Samsung phones in the past.

I think it's also whether any of it appeals to you, for example I love The Morning Show and a lot of other TV shows on Apple TV+