{"id":1236399430,"date":"2025-10-13T12:02:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T19:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/?p=1236399430"},"modified":"2025-10-14T06:45:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T13:45:16","slug":"apple-tv-plus-rebrand-end-of-an-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hollywoodreporter.com\/business\/business-news\/apple-tv-plus-rebrand-end-of-an-era-1236399430\/","title":{"rendered":"Apple’s TV Rebrand Marks the End of the “Plus” Era"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\tAs if teaching your dad the difference between Apple TV and Apple TV+ was not difficult enough before \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tOn Monday, Apple quietly rebranded<\/a> its SVOD (subscription video on demand) service Apple TV+ as just \u201cApple TV.\u201d The intention is to provide the streamer a \u201cvibrant new identity,\u201d Apple said, but as anyone with a second grade education knows, minus-ing a plus can often result in a negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tApple buried its TV+\/TV rebrand in a press release announcing the streaming premiere date (Dec. 12) for its F1<\/em> movie starring Brad Pitt. As of this writing, the core Apple streaming app, the one with Severance<\/em>, still showed Apple TV+ badging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThere is just one problem with the rebrand: Apple TV is already the name of something. Apple\u2019s popular connected-TV device, which competes with Amazon\u2019s Fire Stick and Roku devices, is called Apple TV (and has been since 2007). Apple TV, like a Fire Stick or a Roku, essentially turns a not-smart-TV into a smart TV, serving as the idiot box\u2019s gateway to streaming video via an HDMI connection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tYou could connect to Apple TV+ through an Apple TV or any similar device (or smart TV). Now, one way to watch Ted Lasso<\/em> is on<\/em> Apple TV via<\/em> Apple TV. There are \u2026 no pluses here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tIt is possible the quiet rebrand is a sign of things to come; one could be an ad-supported plan. We\u2019ve long wondered when that would happen: Apple TV(+) is the only major streaming service without a cheaper tier made so by commercials. It\u2019s not for a lack of capability. Apple TV(+) has a sister streamer for MLS games that\u2019s had commercials from its opening whistle \u2014 soccer players need their water and orange slices, so soccer viewers get ad breaks. And Apple has hired a number of TV advertising veterans over the past couple of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tApple, a $3.7 trillion company by market cap, has been able to comfortably shirk advertising revenue for Apple TV+, a prestige-play\/loss leader that lifts the value of the Apple One services bundle; everything in the bundle is bait to sell iPhones. It\u2019s not that Apple doesn\u2019t want<\/em> a profitable SVOD service \u2014 Apple raised the price<\/a>\u00a0of Apple TV+ by more than 30 percent back in August, to $12.99 per month, up from $9.99 \u2014 but it doesn\u2019t need<\/em> one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tApple isn\u2019t the first to subtract the plus sign from its streaming platform. ESPN did the same in August \u2014 sort of. On Aug. 21, the new ESPN app ($29.99 monthly) launched<\/a>. The new direct-to-consumer app, simply called \u201cESPN,\u201d both replaces ESPN+ and doesn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tThe new ESPN app includes all ESPN+ content as well as livestreams of ESPN\u2019s several cable TV channels. ESPN (the app \u2014 the expensive one) has some other exclusive sports content as well. \u201cESPN+\u201d is technically still around as it is offered by a few cable providers; it\u2019s basically treated as another ESPN channel these days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tRemember CNN+? Of course you don\u2019t. CNN\u2019s first attempt at a stand-alone pay-streaming service didn\u2019t make it a month<\/a>. The product of the Jeff Zucker-era network, which did not<\/em> include a livestream of CNN\u2019s linear feed, fell victim to the ownership transition of CNN from AT&T to Warner Bros. Discovery.

The network then hooked up (some of) its linear feed and plugged it in to HBO Max for a streaming effort called CNN Max. But that product is now being phased out as well as CNN readies a stand-alone streaming subscription to a product that will just be called \u2026 CNN.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tHBO Max, like Peacock, is one of the brave streamers to buck the half-a-math-equation trend popularized by Disney+ in 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tFun fact (for this story): Apple TV+ actually beat Disney+ to market by 11 days, but the Disney+ name<\/em> was revealed four months prior to Apple\u2019s own announcement. ESPN+ happened before those things, but that streamer didn\u2019t reach the mainstream. Hulu Plus in 2010 is the granddaddy of them all, though it went with phonetics over mathematics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\tHopping aboard the \u201cplus\u201d train were BET+ (September 2019), AMC+ (June 2020), Discovery+ (January 2021) and Paramount+ (March 2021). Each of those are still clinging to their plus signs \u2014 for now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Apple TV and ESPN have ditched the “plus\u201d sign, and CNN would like to pretend CNN+ never happened. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1223699,"featured_media":1236399539,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"override_post_title":"","override_post_excerpt":"","authors":[],"contributors":[],"styled_by":[],"_image_credit":"","_wp_attachment_image_alt":"","pmc_selected_wwd_video_media":"","pmc_top_video_source":"","pmc_top_video_duration":"","wwd_top_video_source":"","wwd_top_video_duration":"","pmc_selected_featured_media":"","pmc_selected_video_media":"","pmc_selected_variety_video_media":"","variety_top_video_source":"","variety_top_video_duration":"","pmc_featured_media_has_alt_text":true,"_pmc_featured_animated_media_id":0,"_pmc_featured_video_override_data":"","_pmc_featured_video_override_url":"","_pmc_featured_video_response_data":"","pmc-gallery-linked-gallery":{},"pmc_list_item_description":"","primary_category":"","primary_vertical":"","_mt_pmc_exclude_from_seo":"","_pmc_opengraph_title":"","_pmc_opengraph_description":"","categories":64,"subcategories":65850,"thr-review-summary-credits":"","thr-full-credit":"","thr-review-mpaa-rating":"","thr-review-running-time":"","_synopsis":"","_air_date":"00-00-00","pmc-imdb-id":"","pmc-review-type":"","pmc-review-rating":"","pmc-review-rating-out-of":"","pmc-review-snippet":"","pmc-review-title":"","pmc-review-canonical-link":"","pmc-theatrical-release-date":0,"pmc-director":"","pmc-review-image_attachment_id":0,"thr_post_headlines":"Apple TV and ESPN have ditched the \"plus\u201d sign, and CNN would like to pretend CNN+ never happened. 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