Apple Jacks Up The Price Of Apple TV+, Arcade And These Other Subscriptions
Apple TV+ is home to some legitimately great content, not the least of which is Ted Lasso, For All Mankind, and The Morning Show. The series Severance, winner of two Emmy awards, is worthy of binging as well. It also felt like a steal at $6.99 per month plus frequent promotions (and a free trial if you're new). However, Apple just quietly hiked the subscription fee for Apple TV+ to $9.99 per month, and also raised the price of several other services.
The price increase applies to both new and existing subscribers in the United States and several other territories. While just a few bucks on the surface, it works out to a nearly 43% price increase. Same goes for an annual subscription—Apple raised the price from $69 to $99, which is right around a 43.5% jump. It's still a cheaper route than a monthly subscription, but also a chunky increase.
This is the second time Apple has bumped up the price of its TV+ service. The last one came in October of last year, when the subscription went up a couple of bucks from $4.99 to $6.99 per month. So in the matter of 12 months, Apple TV+ has effectively doubled in price for the monthly sub.
It's not just Apple TV+ that suddenly costs more. Apple raised the price of Apple Arcade from $4.99 to $6.99 per month (+40%) and Apple News+ from $9.99 to $12.99 per month (+30%). Additionally, every tier of the Apple One bundle is getting a price hike too—the Individual plan went from $16.95 to $19.95 per month (+17.7%), the Family plan jumped from $22.95 to $25.95 per month (+13%), and the Premier tier went from $32.95 to $37.95 per month (15.2%).
Just three months ago, Apple CEO Tim Cook celebrated "an all-time revenue record in Services during the June quarter, driving by over 1 billion paid subscribers." Services revenue for Apple's fiscal Q3 tallied over $21.1 billion while overall revenue reached $60.58 billion, for a $19.9 billion quarterly profit.
Apple is not the only company that is raising subscription prices, though. It's reported that Netflix, which recently came off a $7.97 billion quarter, is planning to raise prices across the board, including for its $19.99 per month 4K package. Likewise, Discovery+'s ad-free tier recently jumped from $6.99 to $8.99 per month in the US. And this past summer, Disney raised the price of Hulu by more than 20%, from $14.99 to $17.99 per month.
Regular price bumps are now part of the game. Unfortunately, it takes away from the value proposition of cutting the cord, which is compounded by the fact that each service is home to tantalizing exclusives. One way to stay a step ahead, however, is to bounce around from one service to another, depending on what you want to watch during any given month. That's to say, you could subscribe to Apple TV+ until you're caught up on the shows and movies you want to watch on that platform, and then jump ship to Netflix or Hulu, or wherever.
