Almost a year after the launch of Apple TV Plus, the tech giant’s entry into the streaming wars remains a bit of an anomaly. At $5 a month, Apple TV Plus is the lowest-priced premium, ad-free streaming service around but still packs high-end features like 4K resolution, HDR and mobile downloads. After a slow start it now has more than 30 exclusive, big-budget shows and movies with stars like Jennifer Aniston, Oprah Winfrey and Tom Hanks. That number is tiny compared to Netflix, Amazon Prime or HBO Max, however, in part because Apple TV Plus has almost no back catalog of shows and movies to scroll through.
LikeLow costAd-freeMobile downloads4K HDR and Dolby Vision and AtmosBig-budget, star-studded originals
Don’t LikeVery small catalogNo older contentNo breakout hit showConfusing app experience
Whether the service is worth $5 a month for you — or less, depending on whether you get it for free after buying an Apple device or a discount as part of Apple’s new Apple One bundle — depends on how excited you are to watch those originals. Shows like The Morning Show, Dickinson and Little America have garnered some critical praise, but few have made cultural waves the way that, say, The Mandalorian did for Disney Plus.
Read more: Apple TV Plus: Best movies and TV shows to watch right now
Apple TV Plus has made strides in the last year and will continue to improve in the future, perhaps as soon as October when Apple is expected to hold another event. But until it adds a catalog of familiar shows or a buzzy original (Foundation in 2021, perhaps?) it will remain a secondary streaming choice at best for most people.
Streaming compared
Apple TV Plus
Netflix
Amazon Prime Video
Hulu
Disney Plus
Monthly price
$4.99
Starts at $8.99
$8.99 (or included with $120/year Prime membership)
Basic $6.99 with ads, ad-free Premium for $11.99, Live TV for $55
$6.99
Ads
No
No
No
Yes
No
Availability
Now
Now
Now
Now
Now
Top titles
The Morning Show, See, Dickinson, For All Mankind
Stranger Things, The Office, Breaking Bad, 13 Reasons Why, Tiger King
Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Hunters, Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan, The Big Sick
Handmaid’s Tale, Catch-22, Lost, Bob’s Burgers
The Mandalorian, Avengers Endgame, Toy Story, The Simpsons
Mobile downloads
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
4K HDR available
Yes
Yes (on Premium plan)
Yes
Yes
Yes
Number of streams:
6
1 (2 for Standard, 4 on Premium)
2
2 (Unlimited with Live TV $9.99 add-on)
4
All-original content, nothing familiar to binge
Apple’s current slate of about 30 original shows and movies includes comedies, dramas, documentaries and talk shows. At launch last November it only had 9 titles on the whole platform, with a strategy that seemed to be focused on keeping the platform small and high-quality. Its marquee drama, The Morning Show, which stars Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston and Steve Carrell, had a huge $300 million reported budget. Almost a year later, this is the closest the platform has had to a real breakout show.
Other originals at launch included the book-focused Oprah Winfrey talk show Oprah’s Book Club; the post-apocalyptic thriller See starring Jason Momoa, the alternative retelling of the space program For All Mankind, and the Hailee Steinfeld-starring comedy Dickinson about poet Emily Dickinson.
Apple TV has almost exclusively new original shows and movies, but no back catalog of other titles to explore.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Over the past year, additions include the immigration anthology series Little America, the thriller miniseries Defending Jacob and the comedy series Mythic Quest. The service also grabbed the Tom Hanks World War II thriller Greyhound after the coronavirus pandemic forced the film to skip theaters. You’ll find a few shows for kids, like Snoopy in Space and Helpsters, but the catalog is definitely more adult-oriented.
Apple TV Plus may get its Baby Yoda moment in 2021, when it drops the original series Foundation, an adaptation of Isaac Asimov’s award-winning sci-fi novels. From the amount of buzz the trailer got when it dropped in June, I’d guess that it draws many new subscribers to the service, at least while it’s airing.
Read more: Foundation on Apple TV Plus probably won’t stick to the books, and that’s good
Most Apple TV Plus series initially premiere a few episodes at once, followed by one new episode each week to keep you hooked. But sometimes the service drops a full season all at once.
Ultimately the platform is hurt by its lack of a back catalog — especially compared to NBC’s streaming newcomer Peacock, which has a free tier with 13,000 hours of shows that include bingeable favorites like Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock. Apple doesn’t share subscriber numbers, but Bloomberg reported that as of February, 10 million people had signed up, citing sources familiar with the service — but it’s unclear how many of those are yearlong free trials. Either way, only about half that number actively use the service, Bloomberg reported.
Apple’s strategy appears to be shifting. Earlier this year, Apple started acquiring older movies and TV shows to round out the service, but this remains very limited. So far, all we have is the 1980s Jim Henson TV series Fraggle Rock, as a complement to its own new series of shorts based on the show. But there hasn’t been any other news about what an expanded back catalog will look like, or how it will compare to those of competitors.
Now playing:
Watch this:
Watch first Foundation trailer for Apple TV Plus
1:35
Top-tier features at a low price but no Android or console support
You can’t really beat Apple TV Plus in terms of the features. Its originals are available in 4K, HDR, Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos sound. Like Netflix, it’s completely ad-free. You can share your subscription with up to five other people on your Apple Family plan, and stream on up to six devices at once. You can download all shows to your mobile device to watch offline as well. It’s available in 100 countries.
You can watch Apple TV Plus on any Apple device (iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac), or via AirPlay. You can also watch on your PC, Roku devices, Amazon Fire TV devices, Samsung Smart TVs and LG Smart TVs, as well as on the web at https://tv.apple.com/.
Device support is narrower than most other major services, however. Apple TV Plus isn’t available on any mobile devices except for iPhones and iPads, so owners of Android phones and tablets are out of luck. It also doesn’t work on or work on Android TV, Chromecast, Xbox One or PlayStation 4.
Read more: Peacock vs. HBO Max vs. Disney Plus vs. Apple TV Plus vs. Netflix vs. Quibi: How streaming stacks up
Watch Apple TV Plus on Apple devices, your PC, Roku devices, Amazon Fire TV devices, Samsung Smart TVs and LG Smart TVs, as well as on the web — but not on Android or consoles.
Sarah Tew/CNET
A confusing app experience
Apple TV Plus differs from other streaming services in that it doesn’t live in its own app. Instead, you’ll find the service inside the Apple TV app, alongside programming from other video subscriptions, as well as Apple iTunes movie and TV rentals and purchases.
In practice I found this arrangement confusing. When you enter the Apple TV app, the format is similar to other streaming services, letting you search by movies, TV shows, sports or kids. You’ll see Apple TV originals mixed in with a ton of content available a la carte to buy, as well as stuff from other streaming services. At first glance, it looks like Apple TV comes with all of these shows and movies — until you click on them and are taken to a purchase page.
You have to click on the Apple TV Plus “channel” to actually see the streaming service’s offerings, which is a little confusing.
Sarah Tew/CNET
To see only Apple TV Plus content, you’ll have to scroll to the Channels section of the app, and click Apple TV Plus, which you’ll find alongside others like CBS All Access, Showtime, Starz and many others. (Editors’ note: CBS All Access and Showtime are owned by ViacomCBS, the parent company of CNET.)
Within the channel, you’ll see every show, but navigation isn’t perfect. You’ll find the following categories: latest releases, Emmy nominees, drama and comedy series, feature films, nonfiction series, family fun… and that’s it. No search bar, and no bar across the top where you can scroll between TV shows, movies and kids’ programs, as you typically see.
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll find the latest available trailers in the Coming Soon section, which is nice to give you an idea of what to look forward to. You’ll also see a section called Meet the Stars of Apple TV Plus, with black-and-white tiles of some of the big names on the platform (like Tom Hanks and Chris Evans). Clicking one of those will take you to the Apple TV Plus show you can watch them in, and all of their other shows and movies on other platforms. Sort of handy, but ultimately not doing much more than IMDB in terms of connecting you to someone’s body of work — and then asking you to pay for it.
Once you select a show you’ll see a large photo and the option to play the first episode or add it to your list. But you have to scroll down to another page to see all of the episodes listed — a nested menu design that isn’t super-intuitive.
The Apple TV Plus voice experience worked best on Apple TV and Roku. When on the homescreen of either streaming box, I could say something like “Watch Defending Jacob,” and the device would automatically open the Apple TV app and start the pilot episode, no second action needed. On the Amazon Fire TV stick, the voice command took me to another menu, where I’d have to manually select the show to watch. Otherwise, the experience was very similar across platforms.
Being a part of the Apple ecosystem can enhance your experience with the iPhone version: Under a More to Explore tab, you’ll find show soundtracks and playlists in Apple Music, and related books in Apple Books.
Apple TV Plus Originals feature big stars like Tom Hanks.
Sarah Tew/CNET
Should you get Apple TV Plus?
If you’ve purchased an Apple device over the past year, or plan to do so once the rumored iPhone 12 is released this fall, you’re eligible for the Apple TV free trial — and you should definitely take advantage of it. You (or your family) will likely find something you’d like to watch among the 30 original shows and movies.
If you aren’t in the market for an Apple device, you can still try the service free for seven days before deciding to pay $5 a month, or watch the first episode of many shows for free. If you sign up for the new Apple One subscription bundle, you can try Apple TV Plus and several other services free for 30 days. And if none of those options appeal to you, find a friend who subscribes and get their login information, or arrange to share an account — with six simultaneous streams available, you shouldn’t have a problem.
I’d recommend the free trial to see if any of Apple’s originals strike your interest. If they do, $5 a month really isn’t much to pay for high-quality content — especially during a time when we’re streaming more than ever due to the coronavirus pandemic, and you may want some fresh, new shows outside of Netflix and Hulu.
Here’s what Apple TV Plus looks like on TVs, phones and tablets
See all photos
