Apple quietly dropped the “+” from Apple TV Plus this week, rebranding its subscription streaming service as just Apple TV. The announcement was tucked at the bottom of a press release about the upcoming Brad Pitt F1 film. It was a low-profile update to what could signal a larger strategic shift.
The reason given is a “vibrant new identity.” The result is total brand confusion.
Apple TV has been the name of Apple’s connected TV device since 2007. That hardware turns standard TVs into smart ones, much like Roku or Fire TV Stick. So now, viewers can watch Apple TV on Apple TV through Apple TV. It’s the kind of UX sentence that makes engineers wince and consumers sigh.
The name “Apple TV” now refers to three entirely different products: the hardware device, the streaming app, and the content service. There was no refreshed interface, no new pricing tiers, and no clear rollout plan. The result is a brand architecture that feels muddled and inconsistent. For a company known for design precision, this kind of ambiguity stands out. This is not brand streamlining. It is brand clutter.
This kind of naming confusion is not new. ESPN launched a new thirty-dollar-per-month streaming app in August simply called “ESPN,” which includes ESPN Plus content, even though ESPN Plus technically still exists. CNN Plus lasted less than a month before being replaced by CNN Max, which is now being sunset as the company prepares a standalone product called just “CNN.”
It is less a naming trend than an industry reset. After years of services piling on plus signs — Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, Discovery Plus, AMC Plus, BET Plus — streamers are starting to simplify. Apple TV Plus actually launched 11 days before Disney Plus back in 2019, though Disney had announced its branding earlier. Hulu Plus was the originator back in 2010, using phonetics over math symbols, but the idea stuck.
The Streaming Wars Take
So why make the change now?
Apple’s rebrand might be laying the groundwork for an ad-supported tier. The company has been one of the last holdouts on tiered pricing. But with a recent 30% price increase to 12.99 dollars per month and a growing advertising infrastructure that includes ad breaks on MLS Season Pass, change could be coming.
That said, Apple doesn’t rely on streaming profits. The service exists to elevate the value of Apple One and drive device sales. But Apple is still a business, and advertising revenue would only strengthen the long-term case for its streaming strategy.
This move feels less like a rebrand and more like a re-labeling exercise. Apple’s decision to drop the ‘plus’ may eventually make sense if it introduces an ad-supported tier or a more unified streaming experience, but right now, it just creates noise. Apple may be playing the long game, setting up for advertising integration or a bundled expansion, but at launch, the change achieves the opposite of clarity. It solves nothing, and it helps no one.
