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Report: Apple to Sell Ad Space for TV+ Next Year, Hinting at Possible Ad-Supported Tier
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Just because you don't see ads doesn't mean they aren't datamining your usage to refine their ad-system.
But advertising in online-services can be targeted, quite easily.
You’re joking, right?
Yeah sure, Apple used to “Think Different” by getting your money in different ways.
$1.29 a song, $9.99 an album, $2.99 a tv show, $9.95 a year for iOS updates on iPod Touch, $49.99 a year for iLife updates, $79.99 a year for iWork updates, $99 a year for .mac or Mobile Me, $129 or $169 every new version of Mac OS X, $4.99 each iLife app for iPad, $19.99 for each iWork app on iPad, and all of this on top of the hardware you’re paying for.
Sorry, but that’s not sustainable in today’s internet world.
honestly? I think you’re right here.
The biggest thing for Apple TV+ is getting more eyeballs on the shows.
That’s why for the first several years of its existence you could get a free year with it just by buying an iPhone or an iPod or an iPad or an Apple TV or anything really, and these days there are plenty of promotions through carriers and retailers to get free months of it.
Peacock has a free option and it seems to be working out for them.
Free with ads, maybe some premium shows like the latest season of Ted Lasso and the Peanuts specials locked behind a paid subscription.
It does make a lot of sense.
Apple clearly wants to make a profit on it, but you can’t make profit if no one knows what you’re selling, and that’s the biggest issue with Apple TV+ right now.
People who have it love the shows on it, people who don’t have it don’t know that it exists.
I would be shocked if that were true. Everybody else (Netflix, HBO Max) is charging for the same price for their ad-supported tier that they used to charge for their ad-free tier and increased the price of the ad-free tier. Eventually I expect that there will be no ad-free tier at any of these services, it's too tempting for them to reintroduce the cable-tv model where you have numerous ads and pay for it to boot.
The big difference is that Netflix and HBO or already well known services with shows people already know, and given that a streaming service is all that they are, they thrive on those subscriptions.
Apple has none of these things. They’re a huge company outside of TV+ subscriptions, and most people don’t know of or about any of the shows that TV+ offers.
An ad supported tier for free that only has some of the earliest seasons of shows to get people locked in makes all the sense in the world.
Its what NBC did with Peacock, there’s a free option but you’re stuck with ads, and you’re stuck with only certain seasons of shows.
But it seems to be working for them.
I would suggest that doing this would make it easier to offer NFL Sunday Ticket. And at a price of free that some have suggested that Apple would like to offer. So maybe something good could come from this.
A few days ago, the WSJ had an article about the various streaming providers looking to bundles and retailer partnerships to compete. It mentioned that Costco has been exploring a partnership with a streamer but didn't name it. I wouldn't be surprised if it's Apple, partly because of the demographic alignment and partly because they already have a history of deals (e.g., hefty discounts on TV+ and News+ subscriptions).
It better be ads only on the ad-tier - first ad I see on a non-ad subscription is the last one I will because I'll cancel.
Ads for other shows, don't count...and I suppose neither do product placement's in shows (but the latter can get really annoying and ruin a great show - Prius/Warehouse 13 for example).
Ads for other shows, don't count...and I suppose neither do product placement's in shows (but the latter can get really annoying and ruin a great show - Prius/Warehouse 13 for example).
True, but a lot of those declines were from click through ads which perform better when more targeted. I think streaming services typically rely more on impression (only) advertising which doesn't necessarily need to be as targeted. Similar to traditional television advertising which are largely based on broader demographic data.
Besides, Apple has also already been long using things like user location and other data (by default) for the App Store, News/News+, Apple TV, etc. and will presumably do similar here for some degree of personalized advertising. Whether or not it will be enough to see the level of success Apple is hoping for remains to be seen. It will be interesting to see how much cheaper the ad-supported plan will be versus ad-free as that may be a sign of how much advertising and advertising revenue Apple is expecting to get.
Apple already "data mines" through Apple TV and other apps.
Yes it can but that doesn't mean it has to be (beyond what Apple already does) to still generate decent revenue.
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That’s not true. HBO Max (and before that HBO NOW) was charging $14.99 for the ad-free plan and then added a cheaper ad-supported plan for $9.99 without changing the price of the ad-free plan.
I would be very surprised if ad-free went away completely. People have been wiling to pay up for ad-free content going back 50 years when HBO first came onto the seen and I don't see that changing.
O1H, true. OTOH, if they didn't do it under such a guise, they were going to find other excuses to up prices. Don't think that prices were going to stay the same is really the lesson here.
I did a few months free trial of ATV+ and I absolutely enjoyed it. I see myself going back to continue with more of the stuff I didn't get to see the first time around (e.g. Severance, For All Mankind), but also when some key shows get renewed (See is wrapping up its 3rd season, but also waiting for Foundation and Central Park). At $5 a month, it's quite nice. However, I still enjoy many of the other ss. I'm doing a couple months of Hulu (subbed before the price increase that happened on Oct. 10th) and even though it's nearly 3x the price ($13, but no at $15 a month for ad-free), that too has been well worth it.
In the streaming world, there doesn't seem to be a consensus on this. On Hulu ad-free, their originals don't have this, but something like The Simpsons will have a 10-second splash sequence telling you that Simpsons normally airs on Fox, Sundays at 8pm EST. This is unskippable. Some consider this sort of thing to be an ad and say it should be removed (FWIW, on Prime Video, they do have a Skip button). Others don't and are fine with it. There are yet others who consider it an ad, but are fine with it since it's probably part of some contract/licensing agreement, and the rest of the show is still truly ad-free. [shrug]
I once brought up how Apple seems to be becoming more and more like the Big Brother they mocked in their 1984 TV commercial. Even avid Apple fans (not just, "I get a new iPhone every 5 years", but those who have $13K+ of mac gear) have said they've always been like that. They just did a better job of hiding it back then was all.
1984 is 38 years from today. Nothing has changed in the world since then?
Fair enough, but we get to mock Apple about it in the same way we mock Samsung, Microsoft, and Google whenever they do things that Apple does.
I actually do not mind paying for ads. However, the service has to be good. My infamous counter example to this is Hulu w-ads. I did the Thanksgiving sale from 2020 to 2021, for 12 months at $2 a month. There were too many ads. On desktop Firefox browser, if you rewind past a commercial break, you're forced to rewatch the ad!
I finally saw ad-free Hulu streaming to a Roku, and got to experience what it was like when Hulu ads blast at +500% volume! It was such a miserable experience that I vowed to never do this again. At this point, I wouldn't use Hulu w-ads if they paid me to do so, let alone charging $2 a month (which is "practically free" anyways).
Costco.com already has deals with Apple. You can get ATV+ and AA for $45 a year, apiece. And News+ is available for $90 per year. The latter is typically only available for $10/month, so a $30 annual savings is something (although I hear, they need it). $5 a year for either AA or ATV+ isn't a lot, but they were only $50 a year otherwise (still, I feel like going another -$5 to -$10 per year would've gone a long way). Those are a start, and am looking forward to what else they can cook up in the way of deals.
Problem is, ATV+ is already $5 a month. There doesn't seem to be much place to go besides free. I guess they could entertain $1 to $3 a month, but don't know if that'll have any meaningful impact to them.
Some people will only do ad-free (including yours truly), so they would lose us as consumers if options for ad-free were to go away. I do put up with ads in YouTube, but 1) I don't use it that much, and 2) there isn't a cheaper option to go ad-free ($12 a month, but I'm not interested in YouTube Music, and some other service). One concern is for Hulu, even if the ad-free plan is heavily discounted, they still make far more $$ there vs. the ad-free plan that charges more.
Right. That's why I said, "They already have a history of deals (e.g., hefty discounts on TV+ and News+ subscriptions)."
2018: "“We could make a ton of money if we monetized our customers, if our customers were our product,” Cook said in an interview with Recode and MSNBC that will air on 6 April. “We’ve elected not to do that … We’re not going to traffic in your personal life. Privacy to us is a human right, a civil liberty.”"
2022: "Syke!"
2022: "Syke!"
That’s pretty much the case for me. Haven’t paid for it but also haven’t watched any of it. Would never pay a dime for atv+ or suffer an ad to watch it.
Maybe one day apple will pay for something worth watching. It’s amazing how bad apple is at choosing shows.
I liked Greyhound but everything else is mostly bleeding heart documentaries and shows I‘m not interested in. I will not miss it when my free trials run out.