Apple increases TV+ prices — again

By MixDex Article may include affiliate links

Apple TV+ has raised prices on its streaming service for the second time in a year’s time.

The new price for the streamer is $9.99 a month or $99 a year.

That’s up from $6.99 a month or $69 a year.

Prices are effective for new signups starting Oct. 25, 2023, while existing subscribers will get at least 30 days at the current price.

The last TV+ price hike was just under a year ago when Apple upped prices from its original price of $4.99 a month to $6.99 a month in October 2022.

Since its launch in 2019, Apple TV+ has grown substantially in terms of the content it provides.

Its original $4.99 per month cost largely reflected its relatively small amount of content. The service centers around content produced exclusively for the streamer, including hits such as “The Morning Show,” “Ted Lasso” and “For All Mankind.”

Since it launched, Apple has also added two weekly Major League Baseball games as well as additional series, films and documentaries. The MLB deal in particular, which costs Apple a reported $85 million a year, could be one reason prices have been climbing up.

Apple TV+ will remain ad-free, Apple noted.

Price increases among streamers is not uncommon and often happen every year or so. Streamers have been facing some tough times thanks largely to a cluttered market and churn rates. Consumers are growing wear of the myriad of streamers and having to subscribe to multiple ones to catch all their favorite shows. Many streamers are also battling password sharing, which is one way that many consumers try to avoid having to pay for every streaming service with content they want.

Content costs have also increased, while the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes clogged production pipelines and, in some cases, are causing networks to shift programming originally meant for streaming to their linear channels.

The WGA strike has ended and SAG-AFTRA is pending verification of a new deal and both deals contain changes to how writers and actors are compensated for streaming programming, which could cause increase costs more.

Earlier in 2023, Disney dropped hundreds of titles from its Disney+ streamer as a way to rid its balance sheets of the licensing costs associated with them as the company as a whole faces tighter market conditions.

In addition to the price increase on Apple TV+, select other Apple services are also increasing, including Apple News+ and Apple Arcade. Both of these services increased by $2 per month.

Apple defends those price hikes by pointing out that News+ has added 100 additional newspapers and magazines along with more audio features plus a daily crossword and mini-crossword puzzle. Arcade has almost tripled the number of titles included.

In addition, packages under the Apple One offering, which bundles a variety of Apple services under a single plan and price are increasing.

This includes going from $16.95 to $19.95 a month for the base individual offering. The family version is going from $22.95 to $25.95 a month while the top-tier offering is increasing from $32.95 to $37.95.

Apple Fitness+, Apple Music and iCloud storage fees are not increasing at this time when bought separately.