Copyright Ars Technica
The heads of Apple TV have “no plans” to bring ads to the streaming service, balking, at least for now, at a strategy that has driven success for Apple’s streaming rivals. In its November 2025 issue, British movie magazine Screen International asked Eddy Cue, SVP of Apple Services, if there are plans to launch an ad-based subscription tier for Apple TV. Cue responded: Nothing at this time. … I don’t want to say no forever, but there are no plans. If we can stay aggressive with our pricing, it’s better for consumers not to get interrupted with ads. The comments follow reports over the years suggesting that Apple has been seeking knowledge on how to build a streaming ads business. Most recently, The Telegraph reported that Apple TV executives met with the United Kingdom’s ratings body, Barb, to discuss what tracking ads on Apple TV would look like. In 2023, Apple hired advertising exec Lauren Fry as head of video and Apple News ad sales. For Apple, “aggressive” pricing has meant three price hikes since Apple TV’s 2019 launch and a current monthly subscription fee of $13. For comparison, Netflix starts at $18 per month without ads, and Disney+ is $19/month without ads. Introducing ads seems like a natural progression for Apple TV, not only because that’s what the competition is doing, but also because Apple TV reportedly doesn’t make money. Cue and the other Apple executives interviewed for Screen International’s article didn’t discuss revenue or profits or specify how many subscribers Apple TV has (Cue did say that Apple TV is “growing faster” and has more viewers with “more viewing hours in this past year than” ever before). In March, The Information, citing two anonymous people “with direct knowledge of the matter,” reported that Apple TV costs Apple $1 billion per year. The publication’s sources claimed the service had about 45 million subscribers. Focused on original content Another obvious way to grow Apple TV is through more subscribers. With talk of Warner Bros. Discovery considering a sale, it’s worth wondering if Apple TV may try to grow through acquisition. But the execs Screen International spoke with seemed focused on building out Apple TV’s library with originals. Cue noted that “at least in the timeframe that we’re thinking about right now, we’re not looking at licensing any content or adding anything to our service.” “We’re building an all-original services; we’re not building on the back of pre-existing IP or library,” Jamie Erlicht, one of Apple’s heads of worldwide video, said. More directly, when asked if Apple might buy Warner Bros., A24, or Disney, Cue pointed out that Apple hasn’t historically done “a lot of major acquisitions.” “We do very small acquisitions in general, not related to Apple TV, so I don’t see that happening because we like what we’re doing,” Cue said. Since its 2019 debut, some have questioned whether Apple TV is an authentic attempt to improve streaming options for customers, or if Apple TV is a “vanity project,” as Screen International put it, or if the service is merely a tool for getting people to buy other Apple products. Naturally, the interviewed executives claimed that the service is built on a commitment to distributing unique and premium shows and movies. The interview provided more insight on how Apple TV leadership defines the latter. Zack Van Amburg, one of Apple’s heads of worldwide video, said: A core tenet of everything Apple does is the notion that humanity needs to be at the center of it, and that’s everything from app design to hardware engineering, to everything in between. We try to think a little more deeply about that. Our shows and our movies tend to be about the emotional experience, the stakes involved, even when we’re doing a comedy.
