Apple TV+ Is Getting a Name Change

I love Severance as much as the next TV obsessive (though I admit I'm a serial avoider of Ted Lasso—sorry), but I must be honest: Nobody calls the service those shows are hosted on "Apple TV+." And now, they don't have to, because the streamer is getting a new name.

I get what Apple was going for with that "+" symbol. It already had a streaming box called an Apple TV, and a pay-per-view app called Apple TV, so it needed to call its subscription-based streaming platform something else. But everyone I've ever talked to about an Apple TV+ show, whether online or in-person, tends to drop the "plus" from the name, perhaps even forgetting it was there in the first place—especially because the aforementioned, plus-less pay-per-view app is still where you go to actually watch your Apple TV+ content.

Now, it seems, even Apple is giving up on the name, and just doing the same intuitive thing all my friends and family have already been doing for years, because at the bottom of a press release earlier today, the company quietly admitted that Apple TV+ will now just be called Apple TV.

Why Apple TV+ is no more

Despite the conflict with other Apple products, it makes sense...mostly. Apple TV+ is a mouthful, and a bit redundant, and sounds too much like Paramount+ or Disney+ (a service I don't like very much). My brain just naturally wants to call the app where I watch Apple content "Apple TV" instead. It's also arguable that calling the platform Apple TV+ implies you need Apple TV hardware to watch it, so arguably the new name is more descriptive than the old one.

That said, as smart as the decision is, Apple is burying the announcement. It came at the end of a post about F1 The Movie's subscription streaming premiere (set for Dec. 12, by the way), and in a way taht wasn't very descriptive. All we know is that, according to the company, "Apple TV+ is now simply Apple TV, with a vibrant new identity." As of this writing, neither the Apple TV app or the Apple TV+ website have been updated to match this new moniker, so your guess is as good as mine as to what the rebrand will look like once it goes live. It could be a big new relaunch, with a new UI, or it could be a quiet change that Apple will try to sneak by with as little fanfare as possible.

At any rate, if you see Apple TV+ branding disappear from your Apple TV app, that's why. All your subscription content will still be there, just without a plus symbol next to it. The big dangling question, then, is how this will affect Apple's pay-per-view store, or its Apple TV hardware.

What will become of the old Apple TV?

For the former, it seems like it won't be a big change, as Apple's F1 blog admits that while the movie isn't available for streaming via the newly rechristened Apple TV subscription yet, but is purchasable only in the wider Apple TV app. That implies that the subscription service and the rest of the app will both continue to operate as separate entities going forward, and while it's a bit confusing for them to share a name, I can't say that calling the service Apple TV+ was every a great solution to that problem. Instead, subscription shows will probably just get a slight visual change to the section they already live under in the Apple TV app.

But how will this affect hardware—specifically the Apple tV streaming box? I could see that being a bit more confusing. Imagine a less literate family member buying a physical Apple TV at Walmart, only to realize they still have to pay for a subscription to actually watch Apple TV shows. For all its faults, at least "Apple TV+" did imply buying Apple's streaming box didn't automatically give you access to its shows (even if, again, you can watch those shows without Apple TV hardware).

That said, it's possible a solution for that is forthcoming: According to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman, a consistently accurate predictor of all things Apple, the company is set to announce a new slate of MacBook hardware sometime later this week. Could the Apple TV+ name change imply that we'll see a rebranded Apple TV streaming box alongside these new laptops? We may find out soon.

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