Apple to Sell Subscriptions to Streaming Services Through its TV App
Apple is planning to offer subscriptions to select streaming TV and video services through its dedicated TV app that's available on the iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV, reports Bloomberg.
The TV app already aggregates television and movie content from a range of different providers into one easy-to-access place, so offering subscriptions is a natural evolution of Apple's efforts to simplify and improve the television watching experience.
Right now, while you can access content from hundreds of apps and cable providers, many require a premium subscription that must be obtained directly from the provider. Services like HBO, Showtime, Starz, Netflix, and more, for example, all require subscriptions, which must be purchased from within a third-party app or website.
Apple is going to offer the TV app subscription options as an alternative to requiring customers to subscribe to various video services from multiple apps and content providers. It will streamline content acquisition for customers, but it will also bolster the company's rapidly growing services business.
Apple is said to be planning to introduce the new subscription feature "in the next year."
There's no word on how Apple's own original programming efforts will factor in to the subscription service. Apple has more than a dozen television shows in the works, and at the current time, it's still unclear whether Apple is building a dedicated service for the content or if it will debut on iTunes or Apple Music.
Popular Stories
Phishing attacks taking advantage of Apple's password reset feature have become increasingly common, according to a report from KrebsOnSecurity. Multiple Apple users have been targeted in an attack that bombards them with an endless stream of notifications or multi-factor authentication (MFA) messages in an attempt to cause panic so they'll respond favorably to social engineering. An...
Apple will introduce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models in early May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman previously suggested the new iPads would come out in March, and then April, but the timeline has been pushed back once again. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is working on updates to both the iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The iPad Pro models will...
At least some Apple software engineers continue to believe that iOS 18 will be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. "The iOS 18 update is expected to be the most ambitious overhaul of the iPhone's software in its history, according to people working on the upgrade," wrote Gurman, in a r...
Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2024 will be an online event that is open to all developers at no cost. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. WWDC 2024 will include online sessions and labs so that developers can learn about new...
Apple may be planning to add support for "custom routes" in Apple Maps in iOS 18, according to code reviewed by MacRumors. Apple Maps does not currently offer a way to input self-selected routes, with Maps users limited to Apple's pre-selected options, but that may change in iOS 18. Apple has pushed an iOS 18 file to its maps backend labeled "CustomRouteCreation." While not much is revealed...
Apple on late Tuesday released revised versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 with an updated build number of 21E237, according to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The updates previously had a build number of 21E236. The revised updates are available for all iPhone and iPad models that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, but they can only be installed via the Finder app on macOS...
With the App Store and app ecosystem undergoing major changes in the European Union, The Wall Street Journal today shared a profile on App Store chief Phil Schiller, who is responsible for the App Store. Though Schiller transitioned from marketing chief to "Apple Fellow" in 2020 to take a step back from Apple and spend more time on personal projects and friends, he is reportedly working...
Top Rated Comments
* Create a system that HBO could hook into, and then support HBO
* Act as an affiliate or referral agency to have Comcast customers become HBO customers
* Engineer, manufacture, and provide ongoing support for the cable box device that delivers the video
* Provide end user customer service and support
* Provide financial services: collecting money from customers, dealing with fraud and abuse, distributing payments to HBO, and paying the credit card service fee which is about 1.5% to 3%
People keep complaining and listing all of the things that Apple doesn't do. What Apple doesn't do is irrelevant. What Apple does is very relevant, and Apple does most of the things for HBO that Comcast did.
In fact, if HBO's app simply collects payment outside of the Apple ecosystem, like HBO does right now, then Apple gets nothing at all. So Apple is currently providing all of those services listed above, for free. Only if HBO charges through the Apple ecosystem does Apple get any cut at all.
It's a bit weird to me that people think this setup is outrageous or unfair. I assume they just haven't really though it through. Can you imagine Comcast letting HBO onto their system for free? It's absurd.
P.S. Apple's cut is the same as the Google Play Store charges for subscriptions, but everybody seems to question Apple alone. I get that we are on an Apple blog in an article about Apple devices, so that's okay here in this context. But I see it in the general blogosphere too, which seems unfair and biased against Apple.
Netflix is the one subscription service I spend $ on. It used to be Dropbox. If Netflix doesn't figure out how to put a decent Sci-Fi adventure series out in the next couple years, I think it will be a season pass to the ballet, or local theatre company. The quantity is lower, but the quality of a live stage performance positively spanks digital media in every way. You should see the resolution of the graphics in a stage production. It's so clear it's like actually being there.