Apple is raising its prices for the next billing period for a number of its services
Apple’s jumped on the bandwagon of streaming services raising prices – Netflix hiked its prices in the summer and again earlier this month, while Disney announced price increases in August that start in November. Meanwhile, Spotify announced a price rise in July.
The new prices, which have risen for Apple One customers as well, will come into play for subscribers’ next billing date. Here’s what you need to know about the price increase.
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What is Apple changing?
Apple is raising its costs for a few of its services including Apple TV+ – just one year after the last price hike.
The prices will also rise for Apple Arcade, Apple News+ and Apple One, which is a combined subscription for several services, which we’ve detailed below.
The key things to know are that Apple TV+ has risen by £2 per month to £8.99 per month, and Apple One has gone up by £2-4 per month, depending on which one you subscribe to.
Apple Arcade is now £6.99 per month and Apple News+ is now £12.99 per month — each rising by £2/month.
What’s not changing?
Apple isn’t changing the price of Apple Music, Apple Fitness+ or iCloud.
When will Apple TV+ prices change?
New subscribers will pay the new prices immediately while existing customers of Apple TV+ will see the new prices come into play on their next billing date.
We haven’t seen any emails from Apple TV+ on this yet, even as paying customers, though Apple said that the new prices will still apply.
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How do the Apple TV+ plans compare?
There’s only one Apple TV+ plan available in the UK, which is the monthly plan. This costs £8.99 per month. There used to be an annual plan at £69.99, which worked out to be about £5.84 per month, however, this appears to have been axed.
How are Apple One prices changing?
You can also get Apple TV+ included in Apple One, along with other services. Here’s what’s included and how prices have changed.
Plan | Individual | Family | Premier |
Previous monthly price | £16.95 | £22.95 | £32.95 |
Monthly price from next billing date | £18.95 | £24.95 | £36.95 |
Sharing | ✗ | ✓ – with 5 people £4.99 each) | ✓ – with 5 people (£7.39 each) |
iCloud | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Apple TV+ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Apple Music | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Apple Arcade | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
Apple Fitness+ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
Apple News+ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
How does Apple TV+ compare to other streaming services?
Apple TV has historically been a well-priced option, although it does have a smaller content library.
It’s still cheaper than most services, and there’s been a lot of popular content in recent months, including Hijack, Ted Lasso and a new series of The Morning Show among its new releases.
Service | Cost/ month | Quality |
Apple TV+ | £8.99 | 4K |
NOW Entertainment | £9.99 | HD |
NOW Cinema | £9.99 | HD |
Netflix Standard | £10.99 | HD |
Disney+ Standard | £7.99 | HD |
Amazon Prime Video | £5.99 | 4K |
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How to save money on Apple TV+
While it’s not possible to get ahead of the price hike with an annual subscription or by subscribing by a specific date, there are ways to save money on your subscription. Here are some ways.
Check out Apple TV+ deals
You can often get Apple TV+ for free, even as a previous subscriber.
We have a page of Apple TV+ deals where we outline some of the best offers, getting you up to 6 months for free at a time. These are worth frequently visiting, as we update them whenever we spot a new offer.
Our Editor-in-chief Andy has managed to nab at least three or four months for free each year since it launched. Though it’s likely that over time it’ll be harder to repeat these.
Share Apple TV with your family
Apple hasn’t yet announced plans to crack down on password sharing – in fact, it’s actively letting you share. With Family Sharing, you can share your subscription with six family members.
If you share your subscription between seven of you, that’s £1.30 per month each.
You have the option to set up purchase sharing, which would allow other members of the plan to use your card for purchases, although you can keep this turned off.
Check cashback sites
You could also check cashback sites to see if there’s an opportunity to sign up for Apple TV+ and earn cashback. At the moment, you can get 3% cashback on the purchase of Apple gift cards with JamDoughnut, which can be used to pay for your subscription.
Be strategic
You can also be more strategic about how much you use Apple TV. If you’ve got a Netflix subscription, a Disney subscription, a Prime Video subscription and Apple TV, there’s absolutely no way you’re watching shows or movies on all of these services simultaneously.
You could dedicate a few months to each one, based on the releases you want to watch.
Try not to fall for signing up for a service for a new series that has episodes released weekly — these services know what they’re doing, and they’re trying to keep you subscribed. Wait for the last episode to be released, then subscribe. This lets you binge them all in a matter of a few weeks, which can save you money.
We have a set of rules to spend less on streaming if you want to learn more.
Does Apple TV+ have a cheaper tier?
We’ve seen other streaming services introduce cheaper tiers to keep costs low for their customers. In the case of Disney+ and Netflix, this is a tier with adverts.
Apple hasn’t introduced this, there’s only one available tier for Apple TV, although it does often offer free trials and run promotions, even for returning customers.