Apple TV has emerged as the quiet winner of the streaming wars over the past few years, but it seems the growing slate of its critically-acclaimed films and TV shows is going to cost you more going forward. Apple has just raised the subscription price of its streaming platform. The monthly plan now costs $14.99, up from the previous $12.99 fee.
The annual plan, on the other hand, has climbed from $99 to $199 for users in the US. This is the fourth price hike for Apple TV in nearly as many years. When Apple first launched its streaming platform, the introductory price was $4.99 for the monthly plan.
Apple won’t be the only service that has raised the streaming fee. YouTube Premium, Netflix, Hulu, and Paramount+ have all raised the subscription fee in the past few months.
Apple TV is also going to become expensive for users who access the service, through the Apple One bundle. The price has now combined all the way up to $21.95, amounting to a $2 hike, collectively raising the expense on other services such as Apple Music, Arcade, and iCloud storage.
Apple won’t be the only service that has raised the streaming fee. YouTube Premium, Netflix, Hulu, and Paramount+ have all raised the subscription fee in the past few months. The price hike is not surprising, as Apple has continued to invest in high-value original productions starting the top talent from Hollywood. Ted Lasso, The Studio, Widow’s Bay, Severance, Pluribus, and Shrinking are among the TV hits, while films like F1 continue to strengthen Apple’s clout in the Hollywood film chambers.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.