Apple has lightly rebranded its video-on-demand streaming service. The Netflix rival that has brought us critically acclaimed shows and movies like Slow Horses and The Lost Bus has gone from Apple TV+ to Apple TV.
Apple announced the name change today in a press release that was primarily about the film F1: The Movie coming to its streaming service on December 12. Unlike previous announcements, however, today’s release referred to the streaming service as Apple TV, instead of Apple TV+. The announcement reads:
Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity.
Apple didn’t specify how its streaming service’s “identity” has changed at all. As of this writing, accessing Apple’s streaming service via a browser or smart TV app still shows the original Apple TV+ branding.
Similar to rival streaming service HBO Max’s recent re-rebrand, this rebrand is rather mild. Still, the change makes Apple’s streaming service slightly harder to differentiate from Apple’s streaming app, which is also named Apple TV, and its streaming boxes, which Apple officially called Apple TVs until 2015, when their official names started including the max resolution that they support (such as: Apple TV 4K). You can have one or two of those offerings without needing the others (although watching Apple’s streaming service on streaming hardware does require Apple’s streaming app).
Now when someone says “Apple TV,” they could be referring to one of three things. This could create confusion, not just in casual conversation but for people interested in exploring some, but not all, of Apple’s streaming offerings. It’s likely, though, that this sort of confusion was already happening somewhat before today’s rebrand.
Apple’s streaming rebrand comes weeks after Apple announced a price hike for the service from $10 per month to $13. The tech giant has never disclosed how much money its streaming service makes. But The Information, citing anonymous sources, reported in March that the streaming service has lost over $1 billion annually. Despite hits like Severance and Ted Lasso, Nielsen tracking has found that the service has minimal TV viewership compared to other streaming services.
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