Apple eyes November launch for Apple TV+ at US$9.99

Apple is planning on rolling out its premium streaming service for US$9.99 per month starting in November.

According to a report in Bloomberg, the company wants Apple TV+ to be a part of its drive to reach US$50 billion in service sales by 2020 with a launch globally in over 150 countries. 

The pricing puts the service in between Netflix (up to US$15.99 per month) and the upcoming Disney+ (at US$6.99) – the latter of which is also scheduled to launch in November. A price point of US$9.99 per month also sets Apple TV+ on a par with its Music and News+ services. 

A report from The Financial Times also claims that the company has allocated more than US$6 billion for original shows and movies in an attempt to compete with Disney, Netflix and HBO. 

Flagship programme The Morning Show, starring Jennifer Aniston, Steve Carrell and Reese Witherspoon, is reportedly costing US$300 million for two seasons of 10 episodes, while science fiction dramas See and For All Mankind are also high-budget productions.

Apple is also reportedly offering a more favourable deal to content creators than Netflix. While Netflix often pays creators over several years, Apple pays earlier in the process once certain goals are achieved.

The FT report claims that Apple TV+ will launch within the next two months in order to pre-empt the launch of Disney+.

Regardless of when it launches, Apple TV+ will be available on Apple devices and some third-party products like Roku, Amazon Fire TV devices, and Samsung televisions.