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| Apple TV Plus faces the biggest test in history |
With the free testing phase over, Apple TV Plus video streaming service faces the biggest test in its history.
The service costs $4.99 per month. It also comes with other Apple services like Apple Music and iCloud called Apple One and starts at $14.95 per month. But many subscribers do not pay.
Apple offers a large number of Apple TV Plus subscriptions to enable the service. Starting in September 2019, anyone who purchased an iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, or Apple Watch product can subscribe to Apple TV Plus for one year for free.
During the pandemic, Apple renewed offers twice for those whose trial period was about to expire.
Most subscribers to the service are still for sale, and 62% of existing subscribers access Apple TV Plus through promotional packages.
Apple did not disclose the number of subscribers to the service. But hundreds of millions of devices have been sold since late 2019.
Apple has now started separating Apple TV Plus subscribers from the free plan.
Starting July 1, buyers of Apple products can sign up for Apple TV Plus for free for 3 months instead of a year.
Those who receive the trial version cannot get it again.
Also in July, the first subscribers who activated the campaign automatically began billing the service after about 21 months of free access to their offers.
It's a big test for Apple. One important point to note is that Apple is reducing its reliance on free trials of video streaming services. For newer or smaller departments, partnerships and promotions are important tools for customer acquisition.
Apple TV Plus has less content than the competition
Apple's movies and TV content have always been inferior to other streaming services, which may be the reason for the lower prices. Disney+ is $8 per month and the standard Netflix plan is $8.
When Apple launched in November 2019, it had 9 original shows and movies. Today she owns about 87 original TV shows and documentaries. It is not close to what other services offer.
For example, Hulu has thousands of offers. Many of them have a large number of followers because they have appeared on TV. Netflix and Amazon Prime Video have more than 1,000 original and licensed shows for customers to watch.
Apple has not authorized any non-exclusive offers for its services, but it does offer sponsored offers. Unlike Amazon, which acquired MGM Studios, it didn't spend any money buying media companies to fill its roster.
It contains most of the Big Apple producers and actors such as Oprah and Steven Spielberg. However, these talents are not fully associated with the company.
Oprah's most important recent interview with Prince Harry aired on CBS and Steven Spielberg recently signed a deal with Netflix.
Streaming media ratings are notorious for secrecy, and Apple never discloses how many shows have been watched. When Apple executives asked if their content was a success, they cited award nominations.
In a press release last week, Apple said its products have received 112 awards and 389 nominations. Overall, Apple's content library still lags behind the competition. The force in this area is not strong.
part of the whole
It's unclear how Apple TV Plus will compete with Disney or Netflix in terms of subscribers because Apple doesn't publish statistics.
Netflix has 208 million subscribers worldwide. And Disney has 100 million subscribers.
Analysts are reluctant to give estimates, but based on the number of smartphones Apple sells each year, it was possible to advertise to millions of people through video services.
Apple sold 206 million iPhones worldwide in 2020, excluding other free trial products.
The percentage of subscribers is not clear
Survey data shows that 29% of subscribers are not planning to renew and 41% of subscribers are not yet sure. Only 30% said they would continue to register.
Apple has never said it plans to compete with Netflix, so the total number of users may not be that important to the company.
He believes that Apple TV Plus is another product designed to entice users to use iPhone and Apple services, which is in line with the company's overall strategy.
Apple wants to get you into its ecosystem by buying a device, and that's how Apple thinks about subscriber numbers.
It said in April that it had 660 million paying subscribers on its services. But this also includes anyone who subscribes to an app through App Store billing.
Apple TV Plus gives the company commercial-free content that it can use to promote new audio and video standards it sets in its products.
For example, when the shows first came out, they supported the Dolby HDR standard that produces better picture quality when viewed through a supported Apple player.
The following year, Apple announced that iPhones could shoot video with Dolby Vision HDR.
And Apple launched a spatial audio feature that works like surround sound when listening to some Apple headphones.
Apple TV Plus shows and movies support spatial audio. This gives Apple customers the ability to watch an offer that it supports without the sponsored content being available from competitors.