Report: TV+ Losing $1 Billion Annually as Apple Services Falter

Apple TV+ is hemorrhaging money amid a broader stall in Apple's services, according to a new report from The Information's Wayne Ma.

Apple TV Plus Feature 2 Warm
The paywalled report reveals that ‌Apple TV‌+ is the only Apple subscription service that is not profitable. While its subscriptions grew to around 45 million last year, it is still losing more than $1 billion annually. The company has spent more than $5 billion a year on content since the service launched in 2019, but this was reduced by $500 million in 2024 in response to a push for cutbacks from Apple CEO Tim Cook and other executives.

Cook apparently raised questions last year about several movie deals with ‌Apple TV‌+ executives, including for the spy action-comedy film "Argylle." The movie stars Henry Cavill and Dua Lipa, and cost $200 million to produce. Cook reportedly complained that the movie had not found a significant audience or generated more subscribers for ‌Apple TV‌+.

The report explains that "the audience for ‌Apple TV‌+ remains relatively small," constituting less than 1% of total U.S. streaming service viewing. Netflix and Amazon represented 8.2% and 3.5% of total viewing in February.

Apple's initial business plan for ‌Apple TV‌+ predicted losses of between $15 billion and $20 billion over its first decade. While major losses are normal in the streaming industry, it represents a major departure for Apple which normally exercises fiscal discipline.

Executives such as Eddy Cue initially shielded ‌Apple TV‌+ executives from budget scrutiny and rejected a proposal to increase oversight of programming costs. Apple did not have internal data on whether ‌Apple TV‌+ would tempt customers to buy Apple devices.

Despite successes such as "CODA" winning an Oscar for best picture, Cook began closely scrutinizing ‌Apple TV‌+'s financial performance from 2022 and advocated more oversight. The use of private jet travel for stars at the cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars per flight came under particular scrutiny, and led Apple to ask executives to negotiate better deals with flight-chartering companies.

Apple's overall corporate profits are so significant that it can easily absorb the losses from its streaming service, but it continues to forgo widespread appeal.

Apple Music, Arcade, News+, and Fitness+

Services is Apple's fastest and most profitable category, with gross margins exceeding 75%, compared to just under 40% for hardware. In its most recent fiscal year, services revenue rose 13% to more than $96 billion. However, other than iCloud+, Apple's other services are said to be in poor health.

Apple Music's growth has reportedly virtually stopped and it remains "only marginally profitable." Since it pays artists and labels more than 70% of its revenues, it has a single-digit–percentage gross margin. Cue apparently told some colleagues privately that he doesn't believe the service will ever reach 100 million paying subscribers. Moreover, overall iTunes Store sales are now actively shrinking.

Apple News+, Fitness+ and Apple Arcade are said to be struggling with low usage and profits. ‌Apple Arcade‌ only had two million users during its first year of operation, with roughly 25% of them on free trials.

Similarly, ‌Apple News‌+ purportedly suffers with low engagement and the number of monthly active users is in the low single-digit millions. Apple Books and ‌Apple News‌+ was subject to layoffs in 2024 due to weak performance.

Longtime Apple services executive Peter Stern, who oversaw platforms including ‌Apple TV‌+, abruptly departed the company in early 2023, claiming he was unable to run the streaming service in the way he needed to amid pressure to increase subscriber numbers. Apple subsequently reshuffled his former group, separating ‌Apple TV‌+, ‌Apple Music‌, and international content from News+, Fitness+, Apple Books, and ‌iCloud‌+.

Apple One

The report adds that most users do not sign up directly for Apple's services, instead opting for an Apple One bundle, which inflates the perceived interest in each service. Many who sign up to ‌Apple One‌ are motivated to subscribe so primarily because of ‌iCloud‌+ rather than other services. Without ‌Apple One‌, ‌Apple Arcade‌ and Apple Fitness+ would not be profitable.

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Top Rated Comments

turbineseaplane Avatar
16 weeks ago
Producing TV and Movie content is not a business Apple should be in at all
Score: 73 Votes (Like | Disagree)
turbineseaplane Avatar
16 weeks ago

Services is Apple's fastest and most profitable category, with gross margins exceeding 75%, compared to just under 40% for hardware. In its most recent fiscal year, services revenue rose 13% to more than $96 billion. However, other than iCloud+, Apple's other services are said to be in poor health.
Notice how pivotal iCloud+ is?

See why they screw everyone on base storage and component upgrade pricing?

Notice how they never bump the included iCloud storage (or add to it per new device purchased) so you have to pay for iCloud+?

Is it more clear now why they offer no paid iCloud storage options between 200GB & 2 TB!?

The iCloud+ "business" is largely a racket

People are getting screwed, by design
Score: 46 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nick A Avatar
16 weeks ago
Apple TV+ I feel generally has high quality content especially compared to other streaming services that just green-light every project.

With that said, I think people just have streaming service fatigue. There's wayyy too many services to subscribe to, and I don't think Apple TV+ has enough content to warrant people staying continuously subscribed for months when there's so many other streaming options.
Score: 39 Votes (Like | Disagree)
jrlcopy Avatar
16 weeks ago
They just need to change the damn name.
You can't sell an Apple TV, and then expect people to know that there's a subscription service called Apple TV+.

No one knows that it exists or how to even find it.

They need a name that separates it a bit, so people without Apple products know they can actually watch it.
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mr_Ed Avatar
16 weeks ago

Notice how pivotal iCloud+ is and how it ties into them screwing everyone on base storage and upgrade pricing to further support the iCloud+ business?

This all needs to stop.

Tim needs to be run out of there.
Someone thought that chasing after every penny they thought they could get in services looked like an easier path than focusing on the day-to-day user experience of 1.6 billion users of their software. And it shows.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnstrass2 Avatar
16 weeks ago

They just need to change the damn name.
You can't sell an Apple TV, and then expect people to know that there's a subscription service called Apple TV+.

No one knows that it exists or how to even find it.

They need a name that separates it a bit, so people without Apple products know they can actually watch it.
There’s a device called an Apple TV then there is an app called Apple TV. Then there was an app subscription called Apple TV+. Who the hell thinks of these things
Score: 29 Votes (Like | Disagree)