Ranking The Potential Of Each Streaming Service
8. Apple TV+
Estimated Subscribers – 10m
Apple is one of, if not the world’s most recognisable brand, boasting massive market shares in the computer/laptop, tablet and smartphone markets and an estimated value of over $2 trillion. Apple TV has been around since 2016 as a video-on-demand service, but their first foray into original streaming content, through Apple TV+, didn’t occur until three years later.
Despite the fact that it is the cheapest of the streaming services (costing just $4.99/£4.99 a month), Apple TV+ has struggled to make an impact. The vast majority of its userbase are free triallists (one year being available to all owners of Apple devices) that do not ultimately renew, whilst a lack of first party hits to draw viewers in has forced an increasing focus on securing the rights to third party content.
Such a strategy will become more difficult as the owners of said content opt to use it instead for their own services, whilst Apple’s decision to limit the availability of their app on certain devices (such as all but the newest models of smart TVs by their rivals Samsung), is a baffling one.
Though they recently won their first Golden Globe for the delightfully hilarious and heart-warming Ted Lasso, Apple’s journey into the world of television looks increasingly fruitless. The fact that streaming isn’t their core business will insulate them, but it’s hard to see them ascending anywhere close to the heights of Netflix and company.