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Bloomberg: Apple Considering Bundling Apple Music, TV+, and News+ as Early as 2020

I'm upgrading most of my hardware over the coming year... so after shelling out $1349 for an iPhone, ~$700 for an iPad, $199 for the AppleTV, $249 for AirPods Pro, and $249+ each for HomePod speakers... seems to me I shouldn't have to pay a dime for additional services and content. They should be throwing them in, forever. Yet the boring TV "entertainment" and mindless propaganda posing as "news", may not even be worth $0 if it came to that. Sorry, Apple... hard pass.
 
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nutmac said:
If you are using annual billing, Disney bundle's $12.99/month isn't quite as generous:
  • Disney+: $69.99
  • ESPN+: $49.99
  • Hulu: N/A (only offer monthly)
That's $191.86/year vs. $155.88/year for Disney bundle -- or saving of $3/month in favor of Disney bundle.

The "cheapest" bundle isn't even Disney bundle. If you signed up for Disney+ with D23, you prepaid for 3 years of Disney+ at $47/year. Combine that with annual ESPN+ plan ($49.99/year) and you will get $5.99/month (or more if you prefer ad-free) credit toward Hulu. That comes to $8.08/month.
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My point is that "no one" wants ESPN+, so it was tossed into the monthly bundle without increasing the cost per month. You could do Disney+ prepaid for a year at $69.99 and Hulu at $5.99 a month for a yearly cost of $141.87. That's a $14 a year savings, or about 1 month of service for both Disney+/Hulu. Other than to point out that the price could be lower, the D23 offer doesn't mean much.
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blcamp said:
I'm upgrading most of my hardware over the coming year... so after shelling out $1349 for an iPhone, ~$700 for an iPad, $199 for the AppleTV, $249 for AirPods Pro, and $249+ each for HomePod speakers... seems to me I shouldn't have to pay a dime for additional services and content. They should be throwing them in, forever. Yet the boring TV "entertainment" and mindless propaganda posing as "news", may not even be worth $0 if it came to that. Sorry, Apple... hard pass.
Click to expand...

^THIS! I paid Microcenter over $5k to build my gaming PC. I shouldn't have to pay Steam a dime. OMG, and my Sister paid $60 to take the kids to see a movie - the popcorn and coke should have been free! And this one time, my parents went on a cruise to the Caribbean and Oceania expected them to pay for excursions.
 
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Books
Audio Books
Arcade
iCloud
News+
Music
Apple TV and Movies including Apple TV+

Add all these together and you might have a winner. Otherwise it just isn't as good as Netflix/Amazon Prime.

(EDIT: and all with a family subscription)
 
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blcamp said:
I'm upgrading most of my hardware over the coming year... so after shelling out $1349 for an iPhone, ~$700 for an iPad, $199 for the AppleTV, $249 for AirPods Pro, and $249+ each for HomePod speakers... seems to me I shouldn't have to pay a dime for additional services and content. They should be throwing them in, forever. Yet the boring TV "entertainment" and mindless propaganda posing as "news", may not even be worth $0 if it came to that. Sorry, Apple... hard pass.
Click to expand...
Why? You didn’t need those devices to get access to the content? You chose to purchase hardware...why should you get services for free?
 
Spendlove said:
Books
Audio Books
Arcade
iCloud
News+
Music
Apple TV and Movies including Apple TV+

Add all these together and you might have a winner. Otherwise it just isn't as good as Netflix/Amazon Prime.
Click to expand...
Correct me if I am wrong, but what is not as good as Netflix?

Netflix:
  • $8.99/month: SD video streaming to 1 simultaneous screen
  • $12.99/month: HD video streaming to 2 simultaneous screens
  • $15.99/month: UHD video streaming to 4 simultaneous screens
Granted, Netflix has far larger contents and variety than Apple TV+ (or most other services for that matter), but I find it overpriced, especially since many catalog titles are leaving left and right.

Amazon Prime ($12.99/month or $119/year) is a great value if you value more than one of its benefits:
  • Prime Delivery
  • Prime Video: UHD video streaming to 3 simultaneous screens (not as good as Netflix with poor user experience, but some good contents here and there)
  • Prime Music: 2 million songs (very limited and essentially an upsell to its $7.99/month or $79/year Prime Music Unlimited)
  • First Reads: 1 free eBook per month (most not very compelling)
  • Twitch Prime: free game contents (very limited appeal)
 
nutmac said:
  • Twitch Prime: free game contents (very limited appeal)
Click to expand...

They are also DRM free, so you don't need Twitch to play them and you get to keep them even after you cancel your subscription. True, they are not AAA games but they do have some pretty popular indie games (Overcooked!, Broken Age, Her Story, etc.) and bigger non-AAA titles like Brutal Legend and Yooka-Laylee. They give you a handful every month you subscribe. I'd say I play one of the games every 2 months or so.
 
4jasontv said:
Wasn't the point of News+ that it combined may different outlets to increase diversity. I understand not subscrbing because you don't read the news, or feel you get enough already, and I don't argue that adding NYT wouldn't be better... but not subscribing because it doesn't have one specific source???
Click to expand...


they have some others I like but not enough to subscribe without NYT there too, everything else I’m satisfied with the alternatives I have today. NYT would be the difference to make me sign up.
 
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The only thing I am interested is the music and nothing else at this time. So far none of the shows on Apple TV+ have piqued my interest.
 
I care about News+ 🤷

Anyway, they need to include Apple Arcade in the bundle.

Also, change iCloud to Apple Cloud already please, thank you.
 
I liked Apple News till Apple News + came out. Since then not checking it anymore...
Subscribed directly to two newspapers + Wired
 
Better idea is build you own bundle. This just seems like away to make people use Apple News. If the bundle doesn't cost less than having Apple TV and Music combined as is, good luck getting people to bundle to get apple news.
 
davidg4781 said:
I’d like News and TV, but I just can’t bring myself to pay that much for what they have to offer. Maybe if I had an iPad to consume the News, iPhone is too small.

I pay for Music but I rarely use it. It does come in handy and other family members use it, but not that often. With a bundle, I wouldn’t feel as guilty about it.

It would also be nice to have one charge each month instead of the several I have going to Apple.
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I planned my timing out so that my Apple Music, TV+, Arcade, and iCloud subscriptions renew on the last day of the month. It's still multiple charges of course, but it's easier to keep track of having them all go out on the same day. But I definitely would welcome the opportunity to have those charges go down to one.
 
Hmmm...I'm pretty sure bundling is what got the service providers and TV networks in trouble in the first place. Of course, that was forced bundling...
 
cardfan said:
Sure but how many of those 10 million are now paying Apple 2 dollars a month? Apple is feeling good with Disney app. They’re promoting the heck out of it now.
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Disney+ is integrated with Apple TV app, but it is not an Apple Channel. So, Apple doesn't get $2 a subscriber. Thanks for playing…

Apple is promoting Disney+ because the integration gets people into the TV app and raises the probability they'll see Apple TV+ content. Also, Apple has to help them to throw a bit of water on all of this monopoly talk out there.
 
smaffei said:
Disney+ is integrated with Apple TV app, but it is not an Apple Channel. So, Apple doesn't get $2 a subscriber. Thanks for playing…

Apple is promoting Disney+ because the integration gets people into the TV app and raises the probability they'll see Apple TV+ content. Also, Apple has to help them to throw a bit of water on all of this monopoly talk out there.
Click to expand...

Think you got that wrong bud. Doesn’t have to be a channel. If an app uses iTunes billing Apple gets their cut. True it’s not the only way to pay for it but most Apple customers will opt to do this.

Thanks for playing though lol
 
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smaffei said:
Apple is promoting Disney+ because the integration gets people into the TV app and raises the probability they'll see Apple TV+ content. Also, Apple has to help them to throw a bit of water on all of this monopoly talk out there.
Click to expand...
The TV app was around for how many years now? Long before ATV+. It was always a place to bring content from all participating streaming apps in to one place and apple promoted those apps long ago.
So that you didn't have to browse app by app by app. This is one of the features that brought me to the ATV initially, having a unified place for shows/movies. At the time it was announced it seemed to be more for taking on roku's universal search. The app was expanded later on and then again for the ATV+ release.
Anyone who makes a ATV app can choose to tie in to it if they wish.
 
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As long as it’s buy one, get all 3. None of these is worth money on their own. Music potentially the exception to some, but I’m a google user because of the bundling of ad free YouTube, music, music videos inc concerts.

To get me on board it would need to be beyond exceptional value.
 
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If this does happen, I'm not looking forward to seeing how much it would cost a month in Australia/New Zealand.

It would have been great if Apple released an Apple TV+ app.
 
Muzzakus said:
As long as it’s buy one, get all 3. None of these is worth money on their own. Music potentially the exception to some, but I’m a google user because of the bundling of ad free YouTube, music, music videos inc concerts.

To get me on board it would need to be beyond exceptional value.
Click to expand...

I hate Google and would rather pay Apple.
 
How about Apple Music, Apple TV+, and Apple Arcade? No one wants News when you can get them for free!
 
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