Apple TV Plus and other subscriptions get significant price increase

Apple Music, Fitness Plus and iCloud are safe from hike, which will add about a third to cost of streaming service

Apple Price Hikes (Copyright 2019 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)

Apple is significantly increasing the price of its TV streaming service.

The cost of Apple TV Plus will go up by around a third: from $6.99 to $9.99, or from £6.99 to £8.99. The annual price has a similar increase, from $69 to $99.

Apple will also raise the cost of other services: Apple Arcade will go from $4.99 to $6.99, and Apple News Plus will go from $9.99 to $12.99. The Apple One bundle that wraps those services into one subscription will also get increases, with the individual membership going from $16.95 to $19.95.

Many Apple subscriptions will stay at the same price, however. Apple Music, Fitness Plus and the premium iCloud Plus subscription will not get price rises.

Subscribers will see the new prices go into effect in 30 days, after their next subscription.

Apple is among the last of its competitors to substantially increase prices in recent months. Both Netflix and Disney have also raised their monthly subscriptions, with both citing the need to make more programmes and increased costs.

The change from Apple comes ahead of the publication of its fourth quarter earnings next week. In recent years, Apple has looked to its services business to help its growth, amid slowdowns in some other businesses.

It also after a separate report that Apple will completely overhaul its TV app later this year. The change, planned for around December, will consolidate the TV app to focus more on streaming services and bring a look more similar to that on Netflix, Bloomberg reported.

At the moment, Apple’s TV app includes a significant focus on downloading Movies and TV shows from the iTunes Store. The new design is expected to bring more Apple TV Plus to a more central place in the app, as well as changing its menus to make it easier to find its programmes and those from others.