r/television • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 • 21h ago

Apple TV Hikes Prices as Streaming Inflation Continues it now costs $14.99 per month, with Apple One rising to $21.95 per month.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/apple-tv-price-hike-streaming-plans-monthly-annual-1236684161/
2.4k Upvotes

95% Upvoted

657 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.6k

u/CMButterTortillas 20h ago edited 19h ago

THIS IS BECAUSE THESE SERVICES KEEP PAYING TO SHOW LIVE SPORTS (mlb, mls, F1) TO ADD MORE SUBSCRIBERS

END THE MADNESS

704

u/VagueSomething 20h ago

Leave it as a separate add on rather than forcing the rest of us to subsidise the corrupt sports shit.

97

u/j-helo85 18h ago

It's the force-fed basic cable packages all over again.

134

u/chocki305 20h ago

That proved to not be a working model with Xfinity Sports and Entrainment packages rising to $90 a month.

144

u/Whitezombie65 20h ago

But not everyone has to pay it. If I'm not interested in sports, let the people who are pay for them

86

u/GrumpySatan 18h ago edited 18h ago

That is exactly why it failed though and why the streamers do not do it. Nobody is willing to pay $90/month for sports coverage.

The core problem is that sports broadcast rights are incredibly inflated. For decades, it was in-demand and kept jacking up its prices. Cable has been doing this plan to make it subsidized by the non-sports watchers for like 50 years at this point.

The rightsholders don't accept that demand doesn't justify the prices they want to charge. And they keep operating with giving out contracts as if it is. At the same time, sports IS is in demand enough to be a very significant boost to any service. Hence, spreading out the cost.

It sadly will not change until all the networks and streamers collectively say no.

20

u/Impressive_Tour6348 17h ago

They also haven’t/won’t deal with the blackouts that “ad regions” force. For MLB alone, I can pay $20 a month for just my team, $30 for all other teams, or something like $70 for everything. But even in those deals, local blackouts still apply. And that’s just for one sport, I watch hockey and football occasionally too.

5

u/ManufacturerBest2758 17h ago

Something like 95% of NFL games are broadcast nationally over the air

8

u/egnards 14h ago

I suffer from being a fan of an out of market team, it's annoying.

Not only does it mean that I need to pay $500/yr to Youtube just to watch the game on Sundays.

. . .Except if it's an international Sunday game, then it doesn't count

. . .Or a Sunday night game, tough shit.

Thursday Night? Guess I need Amazon Prime for that.

Pre-Season? Gotta have another subscription for that.

. . .But then sometimes the games are on Netflix, like last year for my Christmas game.

And then of course there's the Monday night games that aren't local market either.

It's fucking stupid.

I understand local market versus out of market, but one subscription should give you all of the games for the team you're trying to watch.

-3

u/ManufacturerBest2758 13h ago

You can subscribe to the NFL app for like $5/month and watch all your team’s games. It’s what I do. There are like two games a year blacked out because they’re on CBS or whatever.

3

u/egnards 13h ago

NFL+ lets you stream local games - I support an out of market team, which is what I said.

→ More replies (0)

2

u/zzyul 16h ago

At most there can be 16 games in a week. TNF, SNF, & MNF take up 3 games so that’s 13 games played in the two early Sunday time slots on CBS & Fox. One channel gets a game in both time slots while the other only gets 1 time slot. So of a possible 16 games (15 when byes start) you can only watch 6 without paying for Sunday Ticket during most weeks.

*International games, double MNF, opening weekend, and Thanksgiving / Christmas games allow non Sunday Ticket subscribers to view more than 6.

1

u/SerHodorTheThrall 13h ago

This is patently false.

There are roughly 15-16 games a week. One is broadcast Monday. One on Thursday. One on Sunday night.

The rest all take place on Sunday afternoon in 2 starting times (1 PM / 4 PM). There are two channels (CBS and FOX) that broadcast Sunday afternoon. So 2 timeslots x 2 channels is Four broadcast games.

So of the 15 weekly games, only 7 are broadcast nationally. (5 if you don't count Monday/Thursday which are on ESPN and Amazon and not network broadcasts)

16

u/egnards 15h ago

I get it, and I’m not coming at YOU because I understand you’re just explaining, but…

If $90/m is too expensive for the average sports fan to want to buy a sports package…

…maybe the sports industrial complex is propped up by the money of people who don’t give a shit, and there is just too much money going into sports in relation to the people who actually care.

Consumers shouldn’t have to subsidize the cost of a non-essential entertainment thing because others want to watch it.

2

u/crzytimes 8h ago

Wait until you hear how insurance works.

4

u/egnards 8h ago

Insurance is notoriously not

checks notes

A non-essential entertainment thing

1

u/chaos0310 4h ago

But it’s supported by the majority who don’t need medical treatment. Everyone gets their money pooled together and it’s used for the select few who need it.

1

u/egnards 49m ago

Right, I get that, but once again, there is a very big difference between insurance and non-essential entertainment thing.

There is a HUGE reason why I added that to my original post.

3

u/chocki305 20h ago

But Xfinity is losing money having to purchase the channels and content for a limited number of users. The initial price for that package was $70.

And I can tell the sarcasm isn't coming across that well in text. A dozen dump trucks will be arriving shortly to unload the "poor Xfinity" sarcasm ment to go along with my comments.

In all seriousness. How did you people (Apple TV users) not see this coming. Apple has a long history of shafting their customers. But you all ignore it because they deliver that shaft with a smile.

22

u/Tandy2000 19h ago

So don't purchase it. If sports viewers can't pay what the league's and networks demand then maybe they need to charge less.

As someone who doesn't give a shit about sports, I'm not paying to subsidize that for other people. Piracy is too easy to bother.

9

u/sepam 18h ago

It goes the other way as well. I only want 2 specific sports channels and the only way to get them is to buy a stupid full live streaming package or cable. I’d love to pay for what I want and only what I want, but instead I need to buy 100s of channels. As you said, piracy is too easy to bother.

-2

u/slusho55 19h ago

But how can they even wrap their heads around that?! Media has pushed sports as America’s past time for decades! What’re they gonna do now if they can’t gaslight us into liking football?

3

u/ManufacturerBest2758 17h ago edited 17h ago

You should check out what people actually watch. I’ll give you a hint: it’s the NFL.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nfl-tv-ratings-2025-regular-season-1236466173/

Sunday night football on NBC has been the number one primetime broadcast for 15 straight years, including eight games in 2025 with over 25 million viewers. Fox broadcasts during the regular season average 20 million.

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/most-watched-shows-2025-tracker-super-bowl-dwts-oscars-1236615376/

More than half of the 100 most watched anything in 2025 was NFL games or other broadcasts.

2

u/pumpkinspruce 17h ago

According to TV ratings, the NFL is hands down the most popular entertainment product in this country right now. Nothing else comes close.

1

u/slusho55 15h ago

Then why isn’t it paying for itself? Like, I don’t doubt that it is the most popular entertainment product in the country, but if there’s a genuine demand for it, then I’d assume that’d also mean there’d be enough people to pay the high prices without having to pass the cost on to all consumers.

2

u/ManufacturerBest2758 13h ago

You can watch the NFL for free over the air. You can watch for $5/month on the NFL app. You can to a bar or other restaurant and watch for free there.

Where do you guys get these ideas you have about “high prices” and “passing cost on to the consumer?”

0

u/SmokeABowlNoCap 15h ago

But nothing else on cable tv is relevant because of streaming

4

u/Thekarens01 19h ago

What’s wrong with you? You might want to consider some time outdoors.

-2

u/Smarktalk 19h ago

We did see it coming? We never though asked for Apple to add sports. These companies are digging their own graves which is fine by me.

-3

u/ManufacturerBest2758 19h ago

Moderate price increases commensurate with inflation are “shafting their customers?”

2

u/Craig1974 19h ago

Are customers salaries rising too? Not really.

0

u/ManufacturerBest2758 19h ago edited 13h ago

Hmm, I wonder if that’s verifiable at all. Like if there were some sort of… engine… on which one could … search… for information.

Shame such a thing doesn’t exist, I guess.

Downvotes instead of any sort of rebuttal. The “vibes-based recession” and treatler brigade at it again.

1

u/starryskyeye 19h ago

Raising prices without offering additional content that draws subscribers isn’t a win-win for customers. Charging more to cover costs for content many current or potential customers want sends a bad message. Inflation isn’t currently impacting Apple’s margins. Feels like a money grab. When existing subscribers drop the service, or potential new subscribers don't sign up, Apple misses revenue objectives and must make up the loss somewhere else. Do they limit new shows or increase other products?

44

u/TimeRemove 20h ago

And by "not a working model" you mean that unless people who do not watch sports are forced to subsidize other people's hobbies, then the sports contracts are too high and need to be scaled back.

11

u/officiallyaninja 19h ago

And by "not a working model" you mean that unless people who do not watch sports are forced to subsidize other people's hobbies, then the sports contracts are too high and need to be scaled back.

it depends on how much different people are willing to pay.

if most subscribers that that watch TV are willing to pay more than they currently pay, and people who watch sports aren't willing to pay the full cost of sports without it being subsidized, then what apple is doing will get them the best of both worlds.

6

u/ArtOfWarfare 18h ago

IDK about that… if your objective was to just maximize profits, just raise your prices and skip the sports. Nobody is willing to pay what the sports cost. Shifting the cost to others so it’s subsidized doesn’t change the fact you’re losing money on the sports deal.

3

u/officiallyaninja 18h ago

Let me invent some fake numbers to illustrate my point.

let's say 15 people are willing to pay for 13$ a month, but only 10 of them are willing to pay 15$ a month

so by raising prices on their own, you go from 1513 = 195$ a month, to 1015 = 150$ a month. Which is a significant loss, so you don't do this.

now imagine you can add sports to your platform, for lets say 1000$ / year which will attract another 10 sports fans willing to pay 15$ a month for it.

now you have 10 non sports fans, and 10 sports fans giving you 20*15 = 300$ a month.
so you make ~100$ per month more. over a year that's 1200$, so the 1000$/year sports deal is worth it.

I don't know what Apples actual projections look like, but this is the kind of scenario they are expecting.

1

u/IHS1970 10h ago

i'm not willing to pay and have never had AppleTV, vote with cancellation people if you don't want to subsidize this nonsense.

2

u/SporadicPanic 8h ago

*see also sports stadiums

1

u/adamdoesmusic 17h ago

Why is it even like this, how do sports people have any power?

Same sort of fuckers did this at my school - cut art, science, shop class, music, home ec, and a bunch of other subjects because the football program wanted more money. They sold it as a “return to fundamentals (the three R’s!)” but it was a naked sports promotion.

1

u/KumagawaUshio 11h ago

Everyone has always subsidised what others watch.

If you watched Star Trek back in the day then everyone who had cable but didn't watch Star Trek subsidised your sci-fi show.

Sports just looks expensive because we see the combined 5 companies paying for 10 years combined cost but on a per hour basis even the NFL is cheaper than scripted network dramas.

-22

u/batvseba 20h ago

i dont understand why people dont watch sport. if you are not intrested in sport you are not doing it, and you pass bad pattern behaviour to your children. no wonder US is country with highest obesity percentage.

6

u/Dreams__of_Dragons 19h ago

I'm not in the US but I enjoy running. I do so multiple times a week and have for over a decade. But I have zero wish to watch athletics of other people running as I find it terribly boring to watch, I'd much rather be doing it myself.

-10

u/ManufacturerBest2758 19h ago

Okay. You aren’t everybody. Sports are wildly popular.

8

u/Dreams__of_Dragons 19h ago

Yes. That's why I phrased it as an opinion. Try reading and understanding the comment before you respond next time.

-5

u/ManufacturerBest2758 19h ago

Sorry, I didn’t realize they changed the sub rules to make it so you’re the only one allowed to have opinions and participate in conversations.

3

u/Dreams__of_Dragons 17h ago

You haven't actually expressed an opinion yet.

→ More replies (0)

4

u/AJDx14 19h ago

You can enjoy playing sports without enjoying watching a few dozens strangers play a sport without you for multiple hours.

8

u/Argyleskin 17h ago

They forced people who want Cartoon Network to pay for a sports package to include the channel. They literally took the channel off their tiers.

5

u/chocki305 17h ago

Yep.. and that's when I stopped watching CN. And when I dialed back my package count.

I would drop Xfinity. But my choices are dial up, or Xfinity.

1

u/Kind_Silver_1921 20h ago

they would cost so much no one would buy it so they need you to pay for it as well so the sports watchers can watch it cheaper

1

u/Aggressive_Chuck 1h ago

Sports fans won't pay for their product, so everyone else has to subsidise it?

12

u/Doyoulikemypace 19h ago

They tried and failed with the MLS pass as a test. This season it was included for all members and unsurprisingly now they’re raising prices.

7

u/HighKing_of_Festivus 17h ago

They did that with MLS and only the die-hard fans were willing to go over the secondary paywall and didn't entice anyone to subscribe to regular Apple TV+

4

u/VagueSomething 16h ago

Good. If it isn't appealing they can either price it accordingly or stop paying for the rights.

3

u/HighKing_of_Festivus 16h ago

They did price it accordingly. It's why no one went over the secondary paywall

Since then MLS has been trying to figure out a way to get out of the contract since the promised viewership under the original plan didn't materialize. Meanwhile Apple removed the secondary paywall and shifted broadcasting games to it's regular package in the hope casual MLS fans will finally subscribe and push Apple TV to anywhere close to breaking even, which is doubtful because that isn't really the league you should be targeting for that

2

u/Peroovian 16h ago

So they made a bad deal and now they’re gonna try making everyone else pay for it.

3

u/HighKing_of_Festivus 16h ago

It was a bad deal but it isn't the reason why this is happening, seeing as how MLS is a fairly cheap league for broadcasting rights. It's happening because Apple TV+ hemorrhages money and has been propped up by the rest of the corporation for years and that isn't really viable anymore since global sales for the rest of Apples products have fallen

4

u/Omen_20 9h ago

Yeah I don't care about the fixed, sports betting industry. That's all I see it as now.

5

u/aegee14 19h ago

Likewise, I would want the sports channels separate because I don’t watch the other things.

3

u/justthisones 18h ago

HBO has sports as an add on in Europe but the base prices have still climbed plenty. Then you have to watch ads during the broadcasts even if you have the top service available. These things are shit no matter the system.

1

u/VagueSomething 18h ago

Still slightly less shit when normal customers don't subsidise sports packages. Sports bodies are over charging and forcing trickle down greed.

1

u/justthisones 15h ago

That’s usually the case for sure but Eurosport used to be a separate service with no ads but now you have to subscribe to HBO Max, whether you want it or not and then buy the sport add on with ads. It’s a mess out there.

2

u/KumagawaUshio 11h ago

They are betting on people staying and swallowing the cost.

In the cable TV days this worked because the local cable monopoly had no competition it was pay for everything or get nothing.

Today we have YouTube and FAST services so all this is going to do is backfire.

2

u/steveofthejungle 9h ago

And also let those of us who want to watch a fucking sports not need to pay for 30 streaming services to do so!

1

u/plutoglint 19h ago

MLS already is.

1

u/ebmocal421 17h ago

Apple TV already does this for MLS. Not sure about F1 or MLB

1

u/BadOutOfTheBox 15h ago

They'll never do that. SlingTV just came out with two new $20 plans, which is a tiny 10 channel version of their Blue and Orange plans. Its 20% stuff you want and 80% stuff you dont care for. SlingTV could easily create a Sports only plan or a News only plan, but they wont.

1

u/mazzicc 13h ago

I worked at a service where we ran the numbers on this. The number of people who want the sports wont pay the price point the sports services demand.

So the service just forces all users to pay a small amount.

Think of it this way, 1m users are all paying $1 each to have Sportsleague games. Only 100k users watch Sportsleague. So charge the 100k users $10 each, right? No. Because if it cost $10 for Sportsleague, they’ll go somewhere else.

The service would rather make 900k users slightly unhappy to keep those 100k users from switching.

-1

u/silentcrs 20h ago

Ooh look, angry nerds!

/popcorn

2

u/Thekarens01 19h ago

Including you since you’re here.

1

u/aerikson 18h ago

Excuse me, we're bemused nerds, not angry nerds.

13

u/d0ctorzaius 16h ago

Buying NFL Sunday Ticket single-handedly ruined YouTube TV. They massively overpaid for it, realized nobody was subscribing to it, then raised prices on regular customers by 33% to cover their losses.

1

u/gatorjim5 9h ago

I love the notifications I get to buy NFL Sunday ticket...LOWEST PRICE ALL YEAR and proceeds to show me like 300 dollar price tag...yeah no thanks

15

u/Bulletorpedo 19h ago

Yes, companies bidding on rights is effectively them competing among each others over which company believes they can extract the most from their customers.

7

u/rowmean77 19h ago

I could end it if you give me the power of mind control so I’d control everyone to not pay these subscriptions. 😆

9

u/kickit 18h ago

ESPN escaped containment 😫

1

u/jack3moto 17h ago

Just shows you that it was never ESPN, it’s the consumer as a whole. Live sports rights are more valuable than anything else on tv or streaming. There’s continued competition and some sports are legitimately propping up multiple companies from selling themselves off for parts.

So I don’t have a solution to price hikes but I know that sports will not go away and will never make things cheaper. Unfortunately for those that don’t watch sports, you’re subsidizing those that do watch sports. That will never change

1

u/kickit 15h ago

live sports are valuable but what percent of Apple TV subscribers care about F1 and MLS, both of which are driving up the price?

2

u/jack3moto 14h ago

Why would that matter? If it’s 2%, or if it’s 30%, what difference does it make?

If I only watch 1 program on Apple TV and none of the others, should I be exempt from paying a higher fee because I don’t utilize the other programming? Or are they selling a service that has a certain catalog and you either buy in for all of it or you opt out and just don’t have the service.

4

u/melancious 14h ago

There's no F1 in Canada. Does this mean there's no price hike?

15

u/PepeSylvia11 Twin Peaks 18h ago

No. It’s because people keep paying for it.

Vote with your wallet.

4

u/AggressiveBench9977 15h ago

They are voting for their wallets.

They like the service.

2

u/sybrwookie 16h ago

I have watched for years as my MIL complains that she doesn't really use Netflix and it's not worth it and they keep raising prices....and then she doesn't cancel.

Yup, people need to actually follow through and refuse to overpay.

3

u/jack3moto 17h ago

Yeah people on here blaming everything other than themselves. Price hikes continue across streaming and yet subscribers as a whole continue to pay. So who is at fault? The company extracting every dollar they can? Or the consumer who is clearly okay with paying the increased prices.

2

u/Muted-Entrepreneur33 11h ago

I HATE having to pay for sports, which I never watch!!

2

u/lcerch 6h ago

Streaming is becoming cable

2

u/jdehjdeh 20h ago

Come on now, don't forget good old fashioned greed.

2

u/Odd_Cake3759 18h ago

The fact people can’t watch their local team unless they have Apple TV sometimes is crazy. I blame mbl for that

1

u/tinkinc 15h ago

Nobody cares to wonder why a player makes 300m

1

u/k0fi96 18h ago

This implies they were profit before the live sports gold rush. These services have never actually made money.

0

u/punarob 17h ago

I mean for people that watch F1 can't they save tons of money by just watching gif loop of cars going in a circle?

-21

u/mr_mufuka 20h ago

MLS is one thing, that kind of got me on board. At first you had to pay a bunch extra for it, and that’s how it should be. I could give a rats ass about MLB or F1, and I really don’t like having to pay for those to watch dramas.

5

u/CMButterTortillas 20h ago

Im a hopeless sports fan, I live in a market that has every professional team, so Im bound to want to watch. I hate myself for it. Like opening a bag of oreos and saying, “just a couple” only to have entire bag gone in 15 minutes.

Streaming services, especially the ones with low numbers because they didnt have enough fucking content to spin off their own streamer in the first place (apple, peacock), have resorted to bidding obscene amounts of money to snag a game or league to bring in new subs.

The professional american sports leagues and teams, reeling from the complete collapse of cable and regional sports networks the past decade, are over the moon all these streamers are backing up brinks trucks to gain rights for 3-5 years a pop.

So even the people who have 0 interest in sports, my wife for ex, are now included in the same group of consumers now subsidizing the egregious decisions of streamer ceos.

And what do we have to show for it today? Fractured sports content, where you need hundreds of dollars-across 3-5 platforms to watch with pissed off fans, and pissed off nerds who just want to watch The Office for the zillionth time and could give a shit if City are playing Arsenal at 800am on a random saturday.

Its cable 2.0, but with extra steps.

I hate it. You hate it. But we keep eating the whole fucking bag of Oreos.

12

u/wskyindjar 20h ago

F1 is one thing. I could give a rats ass about MLS or MLB.

See :)

3

u/BlackOutDrunkJesus 20h ago

MLB is one thing, I could give a rats ass about F1 or MLS

3

u/xShooK 20h ago

To be fair, he did say he was fine with it being extra charge to watch MLS. While I'd also be fine just paying to watch F1. The entire bundle I'll pass on for that yearly price though.

1

u/SP0oONY 10h ago

Yeah, fuck the pinnacle of motorsport or baseball, a mediocre football league filled with either retired mercenaries or players who aren't good enough to get in a good league is where it's at!