Why ads on Apple TV+ are as inevitable as a 'Ted Lasso' spinoff

It’s a question of when, not if.

- JASON SNELL

If you haven't been closely following the world of streaming media, you may have missed the major changes in the past year. Following a particularly bad financial quarter at Netflix, the entertainment industry collectively decided they were done spending huge sums of money to establish new streaming services.

The gold rush is over and the rules have changed. One of the biggest changes is that Netflix, which for years refused to even consider offering advertising on its platform, instead announced it would add a discounted version of its service...with commercials (fave.co/40QCdFj). And the results are in: Netflix already makes more money from a subscriber who's viewing its ad-laden version than it does from a subscriber who's signed up for a more expensive ad-free tier.

If you don't like ads on your internet video, this is bad news because it means you'll need to pay even more to keep the ads at bay. But for Apple, it's an opportunity and a data point that might make the company question its overall video strategy.

THE ECOSYSTEM GAME

Right now, Apple TV+ has only one tieryou pay (either directly or via a bundle like Apple One or Apple's deal with T-Mobile), and you get access to an ad-free 4K video service with all of Apple's programs on it.