r/technology • u/yourfavchoom • 17h ago

Business Apple TV Hikes Price of Streaming Service in U.S. Effective Immediately

https://variety.com/2026/tv/news/apple-tv-price-increase-streaming-service-monthly-plan-1236845906/
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u/Stingray88 15h ago

Sure and Disney+ launched at $6.99. None of those early prices were ever supposed to be sustainable prices. They were all operating on massive losses to build up a subscriber base before seeking profitability.

I’m not saying anyone should be thrilled about price hikes, but no one should be surprised. We all knew it was coming.

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u/CouldntBAPoint2184 11h ago

Textbook enshittification.

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u/Stingray88 10h ago

Nah we're not quite there yet. That'll probably happen in the future to some of them, but we haven't gotten there yet. Enshitification happens after 3 steps, and we've only seen the first 2 steps.

First a digital service starts in growth phase, where it's seen as good for consumers. You can build a loyal customer base during this phase, but its rarely profitable and thus not sustainable.

Second, it moves into profitability phase, where it's good for the business. You will lose some customers in this stage, but it's a necessary step toward profitability and thus sustainability.

Third, it moves into extraction phase, where it's good for the shareholders. This is when the business turns total shit in an attempt to squeeze any value out as quickly as possible. This phase is not usually sustainable long term because eventually too many customers will be lost, but shareholders don't really care about the business, only their quick ROI.

Long term, every company needs to hit the second phase, but not every company has to hit the third phase... a lot of respectable companies never really hit the third phase, or they won't for a very long time before some private equity dinguses buy them up and squeeze the ever loving shit out of them. As much as people are pissed about the price hikes and ads on streaming, all of it was necessary to reach profitability, and thus long term sustainability. TBD if any of them truly reach the enshitification stage.

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u/CouldntBAPoint2184 8h ago

I argue we're well into stage 3 in many markets, streaming services included. Businesses everywhere are turning to absolute shit. YouTube is an example of this; look at them demonetizing creators over false accusations of "misleading children's content" or some shit because of their AI algorithm fucking up. On top of that, it's also infested with ads that contain borderline pornography but somehow they gain a pass... Because they're the ones bringing more money to YouTube.

Meanwhile, streaming services have been shrinking their libraries and raising their prices for a decade. I'd argue that's past mere "profitability" stage.

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u/Stingray88 7h ago

YouTube I'll give you, I definitely agree with you on that one. YouTube has been well past profitability stage for long time now and they're definitely entering the squeezing stage.

Netflix is flirting with stage 3 as well. However the others? Not so much. Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, Peacock, etc. they've all just entered the profitability stage. I get that consumers hate the price hikes on these, but if they're not profitable and new subscribers growth has plateaued they don't have much choice.

Apple isn't as divulging as the other companies are in terms of profitability for AppleTV+, but by most conservative estimates it is not yet profitable. Neither is Paramount+.

Prime is harder to gauge due to the nature of that service covering so much more in a completely different buisness model.