Apple recently announced that it will be introducing advertising in the near future to its streaming video-on-demand service, Apple TV Plus. While this marks a further evolution of the service, the move has been met with mixed responses from the streaming community.
For those familiar with Apple’s long-standing aversion to ads, this announcement seems like a major shift in policy. Since its launch, Apple TV Plus has been an ad-free service, offering viewers full access to its library of exclusive content for a monthly subscription fee. A few months ago, Apple added a ‘Channels’ feature to Apple TV Plus, allowing users to purchase additional content from third-party providers, but still no ads.
While the introduction of advertising will undoubtedly bring in more revenue for Apple, which is already one of the most valuable companies in the world, some users are concerned that ads will detract from the overall viewing experience. Furthermore, with competing services like Netflix and Hulu offering up ad-free experiences, Apple’s decision to introduce ads to its service sets it apart in a crowded streaming market.
However, Apple has assured viewers that ads will be kept to a minimum and will only appear during commercial breaks of original shows and movies. Furthermore, the company has also revealed that viewers will be able to pay an additional fee in order to upgrade to a completely ad-free experience.
At the present time, Apple has not revealed when the ads will be added to Apple TV Plus, nor what other changes may be in store for the streaming service. But one thing is for certain – with Apple’s latest decision to introduce advertising, the streaming industry is about to get a whole lot more competitive.