Apple TV+ is losing $1B+ annually even as its subscriptions grew to ~45M in 2024; Apple has spent $5B+ per year on content since its 2019 debut. (www.rte.ie)
from Tea@programming.dev to technology@lemmy.world on 20 Mar 16:34
https://programming.dev/post/27255886

Apple is losing more than $1 billion a year on its streaming service Apple TV+, the Information reported today, citing two people familiar with the matter.

Apple has spent more than $5 billion a year on content since launching Apple TV+ in 2019 but trimmed that budget by around $500 million last year, the report said.

#technology

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floo@retrolemmy.com on 20 Mar 16:53 next collapse

That’s sad to hear. The content on there is amazing for the most part. But, apparently, not cluttering it up with a bunch of junk is actually costing them somehow.

paraphrand@lemmy.world on 20 Mar 17:04 next collapse

Good content is expensive. And from what I understand, the financials are all fucked up across the industry.

Just look at Netflix, they just blew $320 million on a huge piece of garbage, The Electric State.

Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world on 20 Mar 17:35 collapse

It’s a loss leader. They make money selling the hardware and use AppleTV as a feature. That’s why the content is so good; it has to be to make it a compelling addition to their existing products.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 20 Mar 19:05 collapse

That would make sense if it wasn’t available on every other platform.

brrt@sh.itjust.works on 20 Mar 19:26 collapse

It’s still good marketing. People will associate a good service, with good/great shows/movies and without all the fluff that Netflix has, with a good company.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 20 Mar 20:23 collapse

Netflix is just as good as Apple and doesn’t annoy me with ads, failed skips and subscription upsells so I don’t see that working, personally.

Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world on 20 Mar 20:34 next collapse

Yeah but it got you to create an Apple account

Ulrich@feddit.org on 20 Mar 21:02 collapse

Which I used to buy nothing

Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world on 20 Mar 22:00 collapse

They can extract value from just the existence of your account. If they wanted to run an ad campaign to convince people to use them they can cross reference your email and any other demographic info.

Someone - maybe not you but someone like you - will buy an Apple product because of this.

Source: I used to work for a big data company

Ulrich@feddit.org on 20 Mar 22:01 collapse

Doesn’t sound like something worth $1B

Crashumbc@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 05:06 collapse

That is pocket change for Apple. They have so much money they literally don’t know what to do with it.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 21 Mar 05:37 collapse

Do you go around throwing your pocket change into the streets?

brrt@sh.itjust.works on 21 Mar 09:10 collapse

So since Apple is probably not just throwing money away… what other reason could they have?

Ulrich@feddit.org on 21 Mar 09:19 collapse

Poor planning?

Num10ck@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 10:41 next collapse

appletv plus doesnt have ads. netflix is full of garbage, and requires 2 factor authorization like every couple weeks.

Ulrich@feddit.org on 21 Mar 13:35 collapse

appletv plus doesnt have ads

Really? It doesn’t play an ad for a different show every time you start playing a show? Its not littered with ads for MLS? Paramount? HBO?

Yes. It is.

didntwemeetin2007@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 13:02 collapse

A downvote is just as good as an upvote.

aldfin@lemm.ee on 20 Mar 17:14 next collapse

Apple TV+ is a great service, good app interface and some decent series there too. Too bad I had to get rid of it due to the current US administration and their policies. Apart from the default apps I switched everything to European and/or non-profit open source alternatives, which was surprisingly easy.

tleb@lemmy.ca on 20 Mar 19:43 collapse

good app interface

Maybe it’s because I don’t use any other Apple products, but I struggle with its interface

athairmor@lemmy.world on 20 Mar 17:43 next collapse

*citation needed

They don’t say where they get these numbers other than “two people” cited in a paywalled article.

Apple One has over 1 billion subscribers. I’m sure they can afford a loss leader like that.

The only way to know if this true is if Apple says so or they just stop producing content.

KoalaUnknown@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 13:55 collapse

Apple One has over 1 billion subscribers. I’m sure they can afford a loss leader like that.

This is not true. According to a 2022 Press Release, Apple has 900 million paid subscriptions across ALL Apple services. Many of which are App Store-based subscriptions for third party services. The figure also includes things like Apple Care and Apple Financial Services.

kevincox@lemmy.ml on 20 Mar 19:16 next collapse

Just looking at the numbers, they are spending $5G and losing $1G. Their subscriptions are growing. So if they grow another 25% they are making money. (Ignoring infrastructure costs which are most likely a tiny fraction of per-user revenue.) They also just launched an Android app. So I think their story is looking pretty good. Not even considering that it raises the value of Apple TV hardware, their other devices and gives them more lock-in for customers in general that seems like a great investment they made.

cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone on 20 Mar 20:32 next collapse

stop cancelling schmigadoon and central park the only two shows on apple tv i liked.

Graves396@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 04:32 next collapse

Interesting

[deleted] on 21 Mar 06:07 next collapse

.

lepinkainen@lemmy.world on 21 Mar 06:21 next collapse

Apple has a literal 100 billion in cash reserves. They’ll be just fine with losing a billion a year while becoming THE source for premium TV content

Spacehooks@reddthat.com on 21 Mar 10:33 collapse

Really liked mythic quest and after party. Could not recommend it more.