https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/business/media/apple-tv-plus-price.html

On September 11th, Apple CEO Tim Cook recently debuted the lineup of the company’s most anticipated service, Apple TV Plus. The announcement comes in the middle of the sudden streaming wave where it seems as if every major studio or media entity is joining in on the most popular way to watch content. 

The headline of the story was when Cook publicized the price of the streaming service. For only $5 a month, Apple TV Plus will offer a variety of shows, movies, and more in order to compete with its competitors. 

So why such a low price? 

The main reason is it will have a lower supply of content. 

Services like Hulu, Netflix, or even the newly announced Disney+ contain massive libraries of original series, new releases, and decades of vintage programming. In effect, Apple TV Plus will offer roughly a dozen original shows at a low price to attract new viewers and subscribers. Cook claims that the service will have “the best movies, comedies, dramas and kids’ shows.” At the same time, Cook hopes that the quality of the content is a way to keep its viewership and compete with already established competitors. 

Over time, it will be interesting to see how Apple TV Plus’ content is critically received. The company has invested over one billion dollars in its newly established entertainment division, where Hollywood veterans such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg, Reese Witherspoon and J. J. Abrams have been involved. However, the names attached are not guarantees to bring Apple long term success. In this case, I find Apple’s decision to set its price point so low to be a strong marketing tactic. This gives viewers a safe bet at trying something new with the hope of finding content they may enjoy. For competing services, perhaps if Apple TV Plus produces, companies with limited original content like Hulu or Amazon Prime may have to reconfigure their own creative division.  It is the level of intrigue that Apple has in its advantage at the moment, and it will certainly be interesting to see just how big the entity can grow.