Apple raises prices of media streaming service TV+ to $9.99 per Month

By Mark Gurman

Apple Inc. raised prices of its TV+, Arcade gaming and News+ subscriptions on Wednesday, following similar moves by other content providers, as the iPhone maker looks to generate more revenue from services. 
 

The company increased the cost of its TV+ streaming service to $9.99 from $6.99 a month. Arcade climbed to $6.99 from $4.99, and News went to $12.99 from $9.99. The changes apply to the US and some international markets.

The TV+ price increase is only the second in its four-year history. It was originally offered at $4.99 when it launched in 2019. The annual price of TV+ is moving to $99 from $69. Currently some people get TV+ for free through deals with mobile phone carriers, such as T-Mobile USA Inc.

“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 said in a statement. 

Apple, which gets about 20% of revenue from its services division, is aiming to become a go-to hub for streaming content. The company is redesigning its TV app to consolidate its various video offerings later this year, Bloomberg has reported.

The app aggregates content from iTunes, the TV+ service, live sports networks and third-party offerings like Amazon Prime. Apple is aiming to steer more customers toward the TV app, which sits at the center of its expanding video strategy.

The changes follow moves by Netflix Inc. and others to raise prices for their subscription services. Companies such as Netflix, Amazon.com Inc. and Disney have also introduced tiered ad-supported offerings. 

Apple remains the sole major streaming platform not to have the interruptions. It’s also still the least-expensive among the major providers.

Over the past several months, Apple TV+ has expanded its content selection, which includes big-budget movies like the just-released Killers of the Flower Moon from director Martin Scorsese. The company has also widened the selection of games in Apple Arcade, which offers subscribers access to more than 200 titles that can be played on the iPhone or iPad, in addition to Mac computers and Apple TV. News+ offers a library of more than 450 publications as well as narrated audio articles. 

As a result of the individual plan increases, the Apple One services bundle is also going up. The basic plan, which includes Music, TV+, Arcade and 50 gigabytes of iCloud storage is now $19.95, up from $16.95. The Family plan jumped up by $3 to $25.95 and a Premier plan that adds News+ and Fitness+ is now $37.95, up from $32.95. 

The price of Apple Music is staying steady at $10.99 a month, after getting a $1 boost about a year ago.