Report: TV+ Losing $1 Billion Annually as Apple Services Falter

[Johnstrass2]

I have Apple One for TV, music, and cloud storage. I don't use any of the other parts of the bundle. TV+ suffers from one of the main problems of other streamers: everything is serialized. Sometimes I just want to sit down and watch a movie, instead of committing to another series. But I also think the inflated budgets for mediocre content is a problem with the movie industry at large.

I agree. I don’t watch series until the whole series over how many seasons it has comes to conclusion.

Ever since Lost there’s been a business model whereby every episode as a cliffhanger. Every end of the season is a cliffhanger until eventually, the writers lose their creativity. The actors start dropping out, and the series dies a slow death. I haven’t started watching severance and other Apple TV things for that reason.

 

[vantelimus]

Although I like a couple of the series Apple has produced, Ted Lasso and Severance come to mind, it isn’t a business Apple should be in. It is a completely different business from where Apple has competence. It has different business dynamics and cycles. There’s a reason business schools teach against the conglomerate business model.

 

[Johnstrass2]

They just need to change the damn name.
You can't sell an Apple TV, and then expect people to know that there's a subscription service called Apple TV+.

No one knows that it exists or how to even find it.

They need a name that separates it a bit, so people without Apple products know they can actually watch it.

There’s a device called an Apple TV then there is an app called Apple TV. Then there was an app subscription called Apple TV+. Who the hell thinks of these things

 

[eelynek]

They just need to change the damn name.
You can't sell an Apple TV, and then expect people to know that there's a subscription service called Apple TV+.

No one knows that it exists or how to even find it.

They need a name that separates it a bit, so people without Apple products know they can actually watch it.

Maybe Apple TV Air or Apple TV Pro would work better /s

 

[spazzcat]

Apple Arcade is just straight garbage. I’ll never open a single game that its title ends with .io or ends in a +. Wtf does that even mean? It just sounds scammy. The worst service by far.

It means there are no in-app purchases like the non-plus version.

 

[Johnstrass2]

Apple should have bought Disney. But they wanted to do it the ‘Apple way’ which obviously isn’t working anymore in 2025.

Like the car. Why does apple want to go into businesses thet they dont already master or thay can invent

 

[gorilla_butter]

Loved Silo, couldn't get into Severance, felt like a slog. Ted Lasso was a good run, but not sure a new season made sense but we'll see.

The only real service my family uses is Apple Music, but there are no strings keeping us there. It's nice that Music is built into the OS, but Spotify or others could easily replace it if needed. Kids barely use Apple Arcade games as the choice is limited. No one I know uses Apple News or Fitness. Doesn't mean they're bad, just not for us/them.

Much of what we subscribe to comes from Verizon play deals for the discounts.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Ever since Lost there’s been a business model whereby every episode as a cliffhanger. Every end of the season is a cliffhanger until eventually, the writers lose their creativity. The actors start dropping out, and the series dies a slow death. I haven’t started watching severance and other Apple TV things for that reason.

It's a great point -- I really miss the days of having a show that can spend the time to explore "a day in the life of Data" (ST TNG: "Data's Day") or a random side tangent episode about Dr. Crusher having a relationship with a host being, etc

Episodes that are mostly standalone single entities that require little, if any, serial context stand alone and over time so much better.

 

[spazzcat]

I agree. I don’t watch series until the whole series over how many seasons it has comes to conclusion.

Ever since Lost there’s been a business model whereby every episode as a cliffhanger. Every end of the season is a cliffhanger until eventually, the writers lose their creativity. The actors start dropping out, and the series dies a slow death. I haven’t started watching severance and other Apple TV things for that reason.

I never understood the point of cliffhangers. I completely forget about it until the next season starts.

 

[iZollo]

I love apple fitness + i think its a great service and i think once people try it out they will see the value in it.

 

[goodcow]

How are Services margins 75%, and yet only iCloud+ isn't it poor health?

Moreover, overall iTunes Store sales are now actively shrinking.

Yeah, because the redesigned TV app across all platforms shows if a movie or tv show is available to stream using another platform instead of prominently highlighting the purchase option through the iTunes Store. Getting rid of the separate tv and movies apps also made navigation worse.

 

[wanha]

I'm old enough to remember how proud Apple was of not having product-specific profit centers so that the company would not lose focus from building great products

 

[Onimusha370]

You can't throw bodies at projects. If these services go away most likely so will the people that work on them.

I guess my point is that I think they're the wrong projects - most of their services are barely profitable (in isolation) and have low engagement as per the article. I don't see what they add to the ecosystem vs 3rd party services, personally

 

[match14]

There is some good stuff on Apple TV+ but not enough to make me a regular subscriber. Apple News + is meh, surprised Apple Music is not doing well.

 

[wanha]

I think AppleTV+ has some absolutely top notch content, but there's just not enough content on there for me to justify the monthly subscription.

you can subscribe for a month at a time, you don't have to commit for a lifetime

 

[rustygh]

Producing TV and Movie content is not a business Apple should be in at all

After that total pit Severance, I agree. They had a few good ones, Invasion, Sugar, Foundation, Silo, Slow Horses, Shrinking. Not enough to support a streaming service, and IMO everything else was trash, even the Ted dude ended up flat-lining hard.

 

[turbineseaplane]

The main reason to get out of this business is that they aren't "investing" with huge $ losses in something that will bear fruit "eventually."

They aren't building up a catalog of anything anyone wants to watch again, especially with the heavy focus on serialized content.

They are just flat out TORCHING money

If they want to stay in this, they need to make it pencil out as a good business -- right now.

It's hilarious to me to see all the products we "can't have" (like an iPhone Mini or better iPad Mini) because they wouldn't "make enough" money, despite being profitable .... while Tim is just taking a flamethrower to a bank account for Apple TV+ over in the other corner.

 

[Rogue AI]

I’m tired of subscription services and I’ve cut out many of my Apple subscriptions. There isn’t a lot to watch on Apple TV+, except for Severance, Silo, and Ted Lasso, and when those aren’t around, I cancel my subscription. I subscribe to MLS on Apple TV+ though.

 

[robgreene]

Apple's initial business plan for Apple TV+ predicted losses of between $15 billion and $20 billion over its first decade.

This quote clearly states that Apple planned to lose between $1.5-2B annually.

The article updates us that they are only losing $1B annually.

This suggests that Apple TV+ is performing BETTER than expected by as much as 50%, not worse.

 

[Howard2k]

you can subscribe for a month at a time, you don't have to commit for a lifetime

I know, and sometimes I do. But then it's a subscription management thing. Though I could subscribe and unsubscribe straight away I suppose.

 

[Plutonius]

Too much competition and nobody is really profitable.

The general philosophy among the providers is to hold out until everyone else fails.

 

[ghanwani]

Eventually reality will sink in and they will realize they should never have been in the business of content creation.

If your cell phone service sucks, if your Internet sucks, you can thank the execs of those companies for jumping on the streaming bandwagon and hemorrhaging cash that should have been used for upgrading the infrastructure for performance and security. Yes we are all paying for the bad decisions of execs. Look at how cheap cell phone and Internet service is in Europe and Asia. If the phone and cable companies in the US were not monopolies, they'd be out of business.

Apple should have been using this money to create better screen technology.

 

[rwilliams]

I love apple fitness + i think its a great service and i think once people try it out they will see the value in it.

I recently started using it regularly and I like it a lot. I use it on my phone at the gym and it makes things like the treadmill, rower and cycle far more interesting for me than it was before when I was just doing it on my own.

 

[carrrrrlos]

AppleTV+ is just a bad brand name. Inherently it implies you need an AppleTV (which you don’t). It also implies you need some sort of Apple device (which you also don’t). Apple is just all over the board with their products and services, and starting to show they are just okay at most things.

 

[wanha]

I know, and sometimes I do. But then it's a subscription management thing. Though I could subscribe and unsubscribe straight away I suppose.

agreed, managing subscriptions is a hassle, and I think a lot of these companies rely on people forgetting to unsubscribe.