Apple TV+ is going through changes.
In a dramatic rebrand quietly tucked into a Monday press release announcing the Dec. 12 streaming premiere of F1: The Movie, the streamer re-introduced itself as… Apple TV.
“Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity,” the company noted nine paragraphs into the release, before pivoting back to the matter at hand. “Ahead of its global streaming debut on Apple TV, the film continues to be available for purchase on participating digital platforms, including the Apple TV app, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Home and more.”
Apple TV+
Apple did not immediately respond to Entertainment Weekly‘s request for further comment Monday.
The tech company unveiled plans to launch a streaming service housing a library of original content in the spring of 2019. The star-studded event held in the Apple company town of Cupertino, Calif., was headlined by stars like Steven Spielberg, who announced a reboot of his 1985 anthology series Amazing Stories, Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston, who previewed current hit series The Morning Show, and even Oprah Winfrey, who shared details of a newly inked multi-year development deal with the streamer.
The platform launched that November with The Morning Show, and has since grown to boast roughly 45 million subscribers. That leaves it squarely out of the top five streamers based on subscriber count, four of which (Paramount+ excluding) exceed 100 million: Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Disney+, HBO Max, and Paramount+.
While the platform has achieved several impressive victories, including becoming the first streaming service to release a Best Picture-winning film — 2021’s CODA — it has also suffered its share of defeats.
Earlier this year, an anonymously sourced report found that the company is spending roughly $4.5 billion per year on content, and losing around $1 billion. Like Disney+ and Prime Video, however, Apple TV is connected to a profit-generating machine that takes some of the stress off the push toward independent solvency. Months later, the streamer announced a 30 percent increase in subscription fees.
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HBO recently underwent its own rebranding saga that drew considerable (and sarcastic) attention. Following the 2022 merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, Inc., the platform long known as HBO Max dropped the one recognizable word of its name to simply become Max in 2023. Then this May, the conglomerate tacked the HBO back on, humorously acknowledging the needless confusion by labeling the re-rebrand “the plot twist everyone’s been waiting for.”
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