Apple reportedly plans to add advertising to Apple TV+

Apple is in talks with UK TV ratings agencies to introduce advertising to its video streaming service, Apple TV+ , The Telegraph reports.

Apple TV plots UK ads
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/27/apple-tv-plots-uk-adverts/

Apple continuing work on ad-supported TV+ plan; in discussions about UK advertising - 9to5Mac
https://9to5mac.com/2024/07/28/apple-tv-plus-ad-tier-work/

Apple may first roll out an ad-supported option in the UK
https://appleinsider.com/articles/24/07/28/apple-in-talks-to-bring-ad-supported-apple-tv-option-to-uk-us

Apple executives have met with the BARB, a research and analysis firm that tracks TV viewing trends in the UK, in recent weeks to discuss plans to add advertising to the company's video streaming service, Apple TV+, The Telegraph reported.

BARB is jointly owned by broadcasters including the BBC , ITV , Channel 4 and Sky and is the official record of viewership for UK television programmes.

Apple is tracking the time viewers spend watching Apple TV+ and providing customers with data on original content like ' Ted Lasso ' and ' Severance .'

Ted Lasso: The Unconventional Coach — Season 3 Official Trailer | Apple TV+ - YouTube


To strengthen its advertising division, Apple hired Joseph Cady, a former advertising executive at NBCUniversal, in March 2024. Apple has also run ads on Apple TV+ in the past, and in 2023 sold ad space during Major League Soccer broadcasts for $4 million (about 610 million yen).

However, Apple TV+ does not have a full-scale ad-supported plan. Meanwhile, major video streaming services such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ have already introduced cheap ad-supported plans to increase their own revenue while providing users with plans that are easy on the wallet. In the case of Netflix, the number of subscribers to ad-supported plans increased by 34% in July 2024 alone, and sales in the second quarter of 2024 also reached a record high of $9.6 billion (approximately 1.5 trillion yen).

Netflix also revealed that the number of monthly active users of its ad-supported plan has increased eightfold in one year.

Netflix's monthly active users on ad-supported plans have increased 8-fold in one year - GIGAZINE

On the other hand, Amazon Prime Video, which introduced advertising, has been sued by users.

Amazon users sue over violation of law by introducing ads to Prime Video - GIGAZINE

Apple has invested more than $20 billion (about 3 trillion yen) in the production of original content for Apple TV +, but it has recently been reported that the company has begun to curb production costs. It has also been pointed out that the growth in the number of Apple TV + subscribers is slowing, and The Telegraph points out that Apple TV +, which has maintained the top position in new subscriber numbers in the UK, has fallen to fourth place in the second quarter of 2024.