Apple raises price for Apple TV +, Music and One bundle, citing higher licensing costs and broader video offering – Deadline

apple It is a great creation price Increases starting today for flow Apple TV + service with Apple Music and the Apple One package, citing higher licensing and content costs.

The monthly price for Apple TV+ will go to $6.99 from $4.99, while the annual plan will go up to $69.99 from $49.99. Both are up 40%, although this is the first time the streaming service has gone up since its launch in November 2019.

Apple Music raises $1 for individuals, to $10.99 a month, with the family plan jumping $2 to $16.99 a month. Apple One, which combines video and music streaming with cloud services, video games, and other options, will go for $16.95 per month from $14.95 for individuals. Families will pay an additional $3, at $22.95 a month.

“The change in Apple Music is due to increased licensing costs, so artists and songwriters will earn more for streaming their music,” an Apple representative explained in a statement to Deadline. “We also continue to add innovative features that make Apple Music the best listening experience in the world.”

As for Apple TV+, the statement said, it launched “at a very low price because we started with just a few shows and movies. Three years later, Apple TV+ is home to a wide range of award-winning and widely acclaimed series, feature films, and blockbusters.” documentaries, and entertain children and family from the world’s most creative storytellers.”

The economics of video streaming run differently in tech giants like Apple than in entertainment companies like Disney, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, or even a pure gaming group like Netflix. Since Apple is primarily interested in continuing to pay for its hardware as well as its end-to-end services, its ROI in expensive film and TV projects is less focused than in other companies.

In keeping with this business reality, the company has never disclosed subscriber numbers or viewership metrics for Apple TV+. Tony Sakunagi, an analyst at Bernstein Research, estimates there are between 20 million and 40 million Apple TV+ subscribers, generating between $1 billion and $2 billion in revenue. Unlike any other top-tier player, Apple has so far resisted adding an ad category for Apple TV+, even though it has shown an increased appetite for live sports, signing rights deals with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer and pursuing the NFL’s Sunday Ticket package. Sports, as Prime Video, ESPN+, Peacock, and others have shown, is a strong attraction for advertisers in the subscription flow.