David Farnor | On 26, Oct 2023

Apple is hiking the price of Apple TV+, in the UK as well as in other countries.

Apple TV+ is Apple’s streaming platform that includes both original films and TV shows, including The Morning Show, Ted Lasso, Severance and Coda. The platform launched back in November 2019 with a slate that included For All Mankind and See, and with a monthly price tag of £4.99. Since then, it’s increased its price once, in 2022, from £4.99 a month to £6.99 a month.

Now, it’s bumping up the cost once more to £8.99 a month. The latest price increase come as the streaming landscape undergoes something of a corrective following years of unbridled growth – from the cost of living crisis hitting consumer wallets to the entertainment world having to work out fairer rates for creatives, not to mention the growing competition from other platforms and studios preferring to hold on to their titles as exclusives rather than license them out, streamers are having to work out a new way to balance their budgets and generate revenue that will offset their costs.

Unlike, say, Netflix, Apple doesn’t publish its subscriber data, but the tech giant has been gradually pivoting towards media and services as a key focus, with money generated through subscriptions rather than its core business of hardware or software. Indeed, Apple is trying to push customers to take on its Apple One bundle, which includes Apple Music and Apple Arcade, as well as Apple TV+, plus iCloud storage. For an individual, it’s £18.95 a month, or for a family it’s £24.95 a month.

Apple’s strength is that its cost, even taking on that bundle, is still comparable to that of Netflix, which is currently priced at £15.99 for its upper tier including 4K video quality. (Netflix’s basic tier is £10.99 a month, or £4.99 a month with adverts.) Meanwhile, Disney+ is also introducing a with-ads tier of £4.99 a month in November, with no ads priced at £7.99 a month and a premium 4K with no ads account priced at £10.99 a month. Apple TV+, which does not have adverts at all, still remains cheaper than both.

Nonetheless, with customers potentially subscribing to more than one platform, Apple’s price hike will be enough to deter some from signing up to stream.

Apple issued a statement about its decision to raise its prices: “Since launching four years ago, Apple TV+ has made history for streaming services by crossing major milestones in a short span of time, thanks to its extensive selection of award-winning and broadly acclaimed series, feature films, documentaries, and kids and family entertainment. Apple Arcade continues to offer players unlimited access to hundreds of incredibly fun games — nearly tripling the titles available when the service first debuted in 2019 — with exciting new games and updates added monthly. Since launching, Apple News+ has added more than 100 top newspapers and magazines to include a total of over 450 publications, a catalog of narrated audio articles from News+ publishers, local news collections in over 20 cities and regions, and a daily crossword and mini crossword puzzle.”

Apple continues to offer a free 7-day trial for Apple TV+ customers, a free 1-month trial for Apple One subscribers, and a free 3-month trial of Apple TV+ for anyone who purchases and Apple device and redeems the offer within 90 days.

To keep up to date with the latest releases and additions, see our New on Apple TV+ channel.

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