Apple Raises Apple TV Price to $14.99 a Month, Tripling the 2019 Launch Cost

Apple raised the price of Apple TV again. The monthly subscription jumped from $12.99 to $14.99, and the annual plan climbed from $99 to $119, effective Friday, August 28, according to Variety and 9to5Mac.

New subscribers pay the higher rate immediately. Current subscribers get about one month's notice before the new price hits their bill, Apple confirmed to multiple outlets including 9to5Mac and Ars Technica.

Apple also raised the individual tier of Apple One, its services bundle, from $19.95 to $21.95 per month, according to CNBC. Apple One combines Apple TV with Apple Music, Apple Arcade, iCloud+, Apple News+, and Apple Fitness+. The Family and Premier tiers of Apple One aren't affected this time because they already got hiked last month, alongside a separate Apple Music price increase from $10.99 to $12.99, as reported by Ars Technica.

This is Apple TV's fourth price increase in four years. The service launched in 2019 at $4.99 a month. At $14.99, the current price is roughly triple that. Multiple outlets, including HowToGeek and Sunday Guardian Live, noted this trajectory.

Still cheaper than Netflix and Disney+

Apple TV remains less expensive than its biggest ad-free competitors. Netflix's ad-free plan starts at $20 a month and Disney+'s ad-free plan starts at $19, according to Ars Technica. Apple TV also skips ads entirely on its standard plan and lets subscribers share access with up to five family members, HowToGeek noted.

But Apple TV's library is still smaller than Netflix's or Disney+'s despite years of original programming spending. What Apple has built out is a live sports lineup: exclusive U.S. rights to Formula 1, plus Major League Soccer and Friday Night Baseball streaming, all included at no extra charge, according to 9to5Mac and HowToGeek. The service also carries award-winning originals like "Severance," "Ted Lasso," "The Studio," "Pluribus," and the Oscar-winning "CODA."

Why now

Apple hasn't given a specific reason for the increase. Cleveland.com noted that "a reason behind the Apple TV and Apple One subscription price increases was not immediately given," pointing instead to industrywide memory-chip shortages driving up tech costs generally.

But the financial pressure on Apple TV specifically has been reported before. The Information reported in 2025, citing two anonymous sources, that Apple TV was losing more than $1 billion a year and wasn't expected to turn a profit for at least its first decade, according to Ars Technica's account of that reporting. Apple has never disclosed profitability figures for the service itself.

What Apple has disclosed is that services broadly are carrying more of the company's business. In the quarter ending June 27, services made up 28.1% of Apple's revenue with a far lower cost of sales, 13.7%, compared to hardware's 86.3%, according to Ars Technica's analysis of Apple's own reporting. CNBC reported Apple's services unit brought in $30.7 billion last quarter, up 12% year over year, though gross margin dipped slightly due to product mix and foreign exchange.

CNBC also connected the increase to a broader moment for Apple. The company recently announced Tim Cook will step down as CEO on September 1, and in that announcement Apple specifically flagged services as "a major focus area" during Cook's tenure.

The smarter way to pay, and what's coming

HowToGeek pointed out a workaround: subscribers on the annual plan at $119 pay roughly $9.92 a month effective rate, compared to $14.99 monthly, a nearly $60 annual savings for anyone locked into watching regularly.

The timing lands awkwardly for Apple. Cleveland.com noted the hike arrives as the company also prepares to raise iPhone 18 prices by up to $300 at its expected September unveiling, on top of earlier price increases across Mac and iPad lines of up to 20%.

Every major streaming competitor has raised prices this year too, including Netflix, Prime Video, YouTube Premium, and Peacock, with ESPN's increase set for next month, according to Engadget and Sunday Guardian Live. Apple TV isn't an outlier in the streaming market. It's just catching up to the rest of the pack's pricing while still undercutting the top tier by a few dollars a month.