We’ve known for well over a year that Apple was prepping the release of its upcoming streaming service, appropriately titled Apple TV+. However, even with multiple trailers for series premiering on the service, as well as a ton of announced projects, we didn’t even know when Apple TV+ would debut or how much it would cost. Well, until today.
The tech company announced (via Deadline) that the upcoming streaming service would launch on November 1 and feature a $4.99 per month subscription fee. Better yet, if you’re someone who plans on buying Apple products, a full year of the TV+ service will be gifted to customers who purchase new products for free.
The price and release date for Apple TV+ are significant for a couple of reasons. Well, one main reason — the competition. When Disney announced its own highly-anticipated streaming service, the company set a launch date of November 12, and the low-low price of only $6.99 per month. It’s clear that Tim Cook and the folks at Apple took notice of that date and price and decided its best to undercut the Mouse House at every turn, obviously in an attempt to impede the launch of Disney+ in any way they could.
However, the price and date are really the only places that Apple beats Disney, or any of the other streaming services including Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, and more for that matter. You see, compared to the other major companies involved in the Streaming Wars, the tech company is severely lacking in the content department. With no extensive library in its collection, Apple is set to rely almost entirely on the original content to woo customers, in addition to being the place where you can find shows and films to purchase on their own.
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Even though Apple has “The Morning Show” with Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, and Steve Carell, along with a few other series, ready for launch, that’s a far cry from the thousands and thousands of offerings on the competition’s services, as well as the massive launch lineup that Disney has planned.
But hey, it won’t matter what Apple offers if the company is giving away memberships for a year and is charging less than half of Netflix, right? We’ll find out.