Following the announcement of the rebrand of the Apple TV+ service to just ‘Apple TV’, Apple’s Services SVP Eddy Cue will make a rare podcast appearance, as the next guest on Matt Beloni’s Hollywood industry podcast The Town.
In the interview, Cue is asked about Apple TV’s popularity as a streaming service. Belloni cites the rumored ~45 million subscriber number that some prominent analysts have bandied about. Cue declines to share specifics, but confirms it is “significantly more than that”.
This suggests Apple is doing better in the streaming space than many think, even though the company frustratingly declines to release firm viewership figures and subscriber numbers itself.
Apple TV currently costs $12.99 per month as a standalone subscription, although presumably many people have access through Apple One or other partner bundle deals. The $12.99 price is up significantly from the $4.99/mo level it launched at in 2019, reflecting Apple’s growing content catalog of originals.
Here’s what Cue said in regard to Apple TV’s performance so far:
“Look, it’s a lot harder than it looks,” he said of building a subscriber base with original shows and movies and without a legacy library of content, adding: “I didn’t forecast being out of production for a year and a half, I didn’t forecast a nine-month strike from that standpoint, so we were a little further behind than where I’d like to be. But where we are today is great.”
Who knows what “significantly more” than 45 million means. Nevertheless, any number closer to 100 million would place Apple firmly in the second tier of global video streaming services, in terms of popularity. For comparison, the market leader Netflix has more than 300 million wordwlide subscribers.
It remains unclear whether Apple TV is profitable. The company is believed to spend upwards of $4 billion annually on programming, across its slate of original TV shows and movies.
The quotes are from Belloni’s Puck newsletter, teasing the fact that the full podcast episode with Cue will be published later.
FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.
