Apple’s streaming service is reportedly losing about $1 billion a year due to intense competition. Additionally, customers are becoming increasingly more picky when it comes to streaming services, contributing more to this huge loss.
Apple losing $1 Billion on Streaming Services
In previous years Apple would spend about $5 billion increasing the amount of content it would produce. Last year, however that number dropped to just $500 million. Apple is not alone in this large reduction in spending. Many large tech and media companies are decreasing spending and focusing more on profitability.
In 2024 Apple partnered with Netflix and Comcast to launch StreamSaver. This bundle would comprise of Comcast internet, Apple TV+ and other Apple related product. That bundling, however, may not be performing as well as Apple would like. Apple’s streaming services have the second highest churn percentage (percentage of customers that stop using the service) of all major streaming platforms. 7% of users would take their business elsewhere, rather than 2% for Netflix and 4% for Disney+. Apple attempts to market their streaming platform through promoting popular shows such as “Severance”, “Shrinking” and “Ted Lasso.” In fact, Apple TV+ movies and shows have been nominated more than 2,500 times and over 500 wins.
Apple does not publicly announce the number of subscribers they have, but analyst expect the company to be supply 30 to 40 million users. This pales in comparison to Netflix’s 300 million subscribers worldwide. Netflix has dominated foreign markets, but Apple struggles breaking into emerging markets. That’s fine, according to Santosh Rao, head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners.
According to Rao, “Apple’s streaming service never set out to be No. 1.” He also said “Apple is good at the game that they play, but it’s not a mass appeal game. They want to be the creative storytellers. They’re more focused.”
In January 2025, Apple reported that the streaming service performed quite well. Revenue from the streaming service was $26.34 billion compared to $23.12 in quarter one of the year prior.
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