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# Apple is reportedly losing $1 billion a year on its streaming service
- URL: https://www.techloy.com/apple-is-reportedly-losing-1-billion-a-year-on-its-streaming-service/
- Published: 2025-03-25T15:15:03.000Z
- Updated: 2025-03-25T15:15:03.000Z
- Description: Here's why.
- Author: Kelechi Edeh
- Tags: / News, Apple, Streaming Service, Apple TV, Business

When [Apple TV+](https://www.techloy.com/tag/apple-tv/) launched in 2019, it came with prestige projects, Oscar-winning talent, and an Apple-sized ambition to shake up streaming. Five years and several Emmys later, it has great shows—Severance, Ted Lasso, The Morning Show, Silo—but still hasn’t found its [Netflix](https://www.techloy.com/tag/netflix/) moment.

Now, according to *The Information*, [Apple](https://www.techloy.com/tag/apple/) is losing over $1 billion every year on its streaming service—the only subscription in its portfolio that isn’t profitable yet. That’s despite spending around $5 billion annually on TV+ content (trimmed slightly to $4.5B in 2024), and racking up over 2,500 award nominations and 500+ wins across its original titles.

So, what’s going wrong?

For one, the subscriber count isn’t where it needs to be. While Apple doesn’t publicly break out Apple TV+ numbers, insiders peg it at 45 million subscribers as of December 2024—miles behind Netflix’s 302 million, [Amazon’s](https://www.techloy.com/tag/amazon/) estimated 200 million, or [Disney Plus’s](https://www.techloy.com/tag/disney-plus/) 124.6 million. Even with all the critical acclaim, Apple TV+ still captures less than 1% of total U.S. streaming viewership in the U.S., per *Nielsen's* data.

But this might all be part of Apple’s plan.

Unlike Netflix, it seems Apple didn't design TV+ to be a standalone business. Instead, it's more of a supporting act—another reason to stay subscribed to Apple One, keep your [iPhone](https://www.techloy.com/tag/apple-iphone/), and stay in the ecosystem. Some analysts even call it a glorified “marketing expense” as Apple doesn’t sell ads, doesn’t rush content, and hasn’t chased subscriber numbers the way other platforms do.

Still, the platform has a hype problem. Shows like Severance might be a cult hit, and CODA won an Oscar, but few Apple originals have sparked the kind of cultural frenzy you’d expect from their price tags. Even big-budget plays like Killers of the Flower Moon and Napoleon fizzled at the box office. And promising titles like Pachinko or Masters of the Air barely make a cultural dent.

Yet Apple’s not backing down. It’s making [TV+ free in regions like India](https://www.techloy.com/indias-bharti-airtel-is-handing-out-free-apple-tv-and-apple-music-subscriptions/) and just opened it up to Android users—likely in a bid to grow viewership. Whether this billion-dollar bet turns into long-term loyalty is still up in the air. But for now, Apple seems content to keep streaming.

[Apple is breaking away from its walled-garden to grow its TV streaming serviceAfter making Apple Music available on Android, Apple TV+ could be next.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c1/a6/c1a6d111-d951-41ad-a392-c1e841210b93/content/images/icon/techloy-avatar-1-1145.png)TechloyEmmanuel Oyedeji![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/c1/a6/c1a6d111-d951-41ad-a392-c1e841210b93/content/images/thumbnail/photo-1705123898140-11c516829f4c-1)](https://www.techloy.com/apple-is-breaking-away-from-its-walled-garden-to-grow-its-tv-streaming-service/)