Apple TV+, Apple’s streaming platform, is home to some of the most relevant television series of the decade. Stories like ‘Ted Lasso’ and ‘Separation’—original title: ‘Severance’—have established themselves as works very well received by specialized critics. However, the quality of these in-house produced series has not managed to stop a worrying trend for this service, which has become a real money drain.
According to recent estimates, Apple TV+ is losing close to a billion dollars annually due to its low number of subscribers, something that contrasts greatly with the quality of its own catalog.
Apple TV+ is a real money drain that costs Apple a billion dollars a year
According to a recent report published by The Information, the Apple TV+ platform is the only service within Apple’s entire catalogue that is not profitable for the company. And its annual losses are no joke, since they amount to $1 billion annually. This is an extreme contrast that, a priori, does not fit with how award-winning its own productions are, since they have amassed more than 2,500 nominations and statuettes at various prestigious galas such as the Emmys and the Golden Globes.
When the service launched in 2019, Apple went all in, allocating $5 billion each year to support its own productions, although this figure was reduced to $4.5 billion by 2024.
However, this financial effort is not paying off, as Apple TV+ has lagged far behind other platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ in terms of subscribers. Although its owners have not provided official figures for subscribed users, estimates place the number of Apple TV+ subscribers at around 45 million. To put this figure into context, Netflix has 301 million subscribers, six times more. In short, Apple TV+ is not currently financially viable with this number of subscribed users.
Everything seems to point to a simple marketing issue; while Apple products like the iPhone and iPad are extremely popular, and the first choice for many people around the world, the tech giant isn’t putting the same resources into promoting Apple TV+, which has caused its user numbers to stagnate.
This is the beginning of a vicious cycle in which people don’t subscribe to Apple TV+ because they barely see any advertising for the platform, but they also don’t see any advertising for the platform because they aren’t subscribed, as many internet ads are personalised based on our tastes. In other words: despite the quality of series like ‘Silo’, ‘Ted Lasso’, or ‘Separation’, if there isn’t adequate promotion that highlights the virtues of the exclusive catalog of its own productions, people won’t subscribe, which will result in further financial losses for the service.
Apple is at a major crossroads with its streaming service. While 45 million users is enough to consider it a failure, if the situation doesn’t improve in the coming years, the company may have to take drastic measures like a price increase or an aggressive marketing campaign. Ultimately, this is the umpteenth chapter in the bitter ‘streaming wars’, where several of the biggest companies on the planet are fighting each other for our attention… and our money.