More than just Ted Lasso

Apple TV+ spent $20B on original content. If only people actually watched.

Reportedly high budget has brought Apple TV+ a lot of prestige, but not a lot of viewers.

Scharon Harding – Nov 19, 2024 7:14 PM | 429

Slow Horses is a 10-time Emmy nominee—but have you seen it? Credit: Apple

In the streaming world, Apple has a reputation for quality, thanks to its Apple TV hardware and Apple TV+ streaming service. The latter is best associated with original shows and movies surrounded by award buzz and critical acclaim. But despite that success, Apple's streaming service has hardly made a dent in the market at a time when interest in streaming services is bigger than ever.

Apple TV+ launched in 2019. Since then, the company has spent over $20 billion to build an impressive library of original content, Bloomberg reported earlier this year. Yet, despite a highly regarded library of shows and movies with big names in acting and directing, Apple TV+ only garnered 0.3 percent of US screen viewing time in June 2024, per Nielsen.

In July, Bloomberg aptly underscored how minimally competitive Apple TV+ is, writing: "Apple TV+ generates less viewing in one month than Netflix does in one day."

Apple doesn’t provide subscriber numbers for Apple TV+, but it's estimated to have 25 million subscribers. That would make it one of the smallest mainstream streaming services. For comparison, Netflix has about 283 million, and Prime Video has over 200 million. Smaller services like Peacock (about 28 million) and Paramount+ (about 72 million) best Apple TV+'s subscriber count, too.

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Limited marketing efforts for Apple TV+

Apple TV+'s comparatively small library may be hindering its subscriber and viewership figures. Apple has about 259 shows and movies compared to Netflix’s approximately 18,000. And with Apple TV+'s content slate being buoyed by big Hollywood names, from Reese Witherspoon and Idris Elba to Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, there's an argument that Apple TV+ has made such a small impact on streamers due to Apple's limited marketing efforts.

To put this into perspective, Apple spent $14.9 million on commercials for Apple TV+ in October 2019 versus $28.6 million on the iPhone, per iSpot.TV data cited by The New York Times. Online, Apple paid for 139 unique digital ads for Apple TV+ in October 2019 compared to 245 for the iPhone (about $1.7 million versus about $2.3 million), per data from advertising analytics platform Pathmatics cited by The Times.

Apple TV+ has fewer options than some competitors. But sometimes less is more. And Apple is reportedly looking at new ways to get more people familiar with its smaller but powerful content slate while being more budget-conscious.

Apple TV+ licensing movies

According to an unnamed “person familiar with the plans” Bloomberg spoke with this week, Apple is looking to license its movies to companies like foreign TV channels and marketplaces where people could rent or buy Apple TV+ original films. Apple is not currently planning to license its original series, Bloomberg reported.

Apple hired Maria Ines Rodriguez “to license its original productions to other companies, a strategy designed to increase sales from its film business and improve the visibility of its content," per Bloomberg. A job posting for the position that Rodriguez ended up taking called for an executive to “develop and implement a global strategy to enhance revenue for Apple TV+’s award winning original content off Apple platforms,” the publication noted. Rodriguez had prior stints at Disney, Hulu, and NBCUniversal.

Apple adopts more typical streaming strategies

Apple’s reported attempts to license movies is one of several strategies to grow viewership of its Apple TV+ content and is more aligned with industry practices.

For example, Apple TV+ is embracing bundles, which is thought to help prevent subscribers from canceling streaming subscriptions. People can currently get Apple TV+ from a Comcast streaming bundle.

And as of last month people can subscribe to and view Apple TV+ through Amazon Prime Video. As my colleague Samuel Axon explained in October, this contradicts Apple’s long-standing approach to streaming “because Apple has long held ambitions of doing exactly what Amazon is doing here: establishing itself as the central library, viewing, search, and payment hub for a variety of subscription offerings.” But without support from Netflix, “Apple's attempt to make the TV app a universal hub of content has been continually stymied,” Axon noted.

Something has got to give

With the broader streaming industry dealing with high production costs, disappointed subscribers, and growing competition, Apple, like many stakeholders, is looking for new approaches to entertainment. For Apple, that also reportedly includes fewer theatrical releases.

It may also one day mean joining what some streaming subscribers see as the dark side of streaming: advertisements. Apple TV+ currently remains ad-free, but there are suspicions that this could change, with Apple reportedly meeting with the United Kingdom’s TV ratings body recently about ad tracking and its hiring of ad executives.

Apple's ad-free platform and comparatively low subscription prices are some of the biggest draws for Apple TV+ subscribers, however, which would make changes to either benefit controversial.

But after five years on the market and a reported $20 billion in spending, Apple can't be happy with 0.3 percent of available streaming viewership. Awards and prestige help put Apple TV+ on the map, but Apple needs more subscribers and eyeballs on its expensive content to have a truly successful streaming business.

Scharon Harding Senior Technology Reporter

Scharon is a Senior Technology Reporter at Ars Technica writing news, reviews, and analysis on consumer gadgets and services. She's been reporting on technology for over 10 years, with bylines at Tom’s Hardware, Channelnomics, and CRN UK.

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